I recently spent 4 weeks in two African countries. My time was spent working with pastors in some vibrant churches. These were by invitation from African leaders who have become friends and believe I have value to bring even as I have invited them to Canada because I believe that they have value to bring to us.

During my time, I had a number of conversations with different pastors about the evil that they dealt with on a regular basis. This included witch doctors and their influence, the belief in evil spirits that were present in the Indian Ocean and blew in with the winds (no one lives within 500 metres of the coast because of this), the negative influence of the dead on your life if you don’t deliver their body back to the village they were born in, etc.

They are often praying against these realities as people seek freedom from this evil in their lives.

As we talked, I thought about my context in North America. I have at times heard Christians talk about this overt evil that is experienced in different contexts and in a way there is a fascination with this manifestation of evil and the need to pray against it. It is very true that prayer of various kinds must be used and one must be very aware of what you are dealing with.

And yet, in my context, I wonder how much more evil there is. It’s not the overt evil such as what I heard about in these African countries, but it is no less evil, in fact, it may be even more insidious. It is so evil that we don’t even recognize it, and perhaps we even elevate it as “normal life”, as “the way we live”. As I shared with my African friends: “At least the evil you deal with is visibly evident. I don’t know if we are aware of the evil we are facing.”

Can you recognize what I am thinking about? Are you aware of the evil around you, that you are perhaps succumbing to?

It is the evil of lethargy, not leaning into the life of faith God is calling you into. It is an unwillingness to “deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow.” It is the evil of always needing to get more, own more, have more success, get a larger house, better education – a belief that God owes you more external success for your happiness.

It is the evil that pulls you away from loving and caring for those who are marginalised in society, and instead has you talking badly about them and their poor choices.

It would appear that the evil one – satan, devil, evil spirit – whatever name you want to give, doesn’t even have to work hard at convincing us to follow it. I think we have embraced it culturally, not only culture broadly but perhaps even in our comfortable, middle-class churches. This evil is self-centred, caring only for us.

I probably haven’t done a great job of fully articulating this, yet I know that I have been asking the Holy Spirit to make me more aware of the evil that I have chosen not to see so that I can become all that God is calling me into. How about you?

For the kingdom.