Grappling With the Darkness

I have long been a non-fan of dark supernatural intrigue. I don’t find role-playing games or video games with dark themes intriguing. Horror movies and horoscopes are abhorrent. I have no interest in dark music, psychics or the vampire culture. As a matter of fact I don’t even particularly care for Christian literature and media when evil is overly portrayed.

Diana and I have always tried to steer our family toward living an evil free life even though we sometimes feel “old fashioned” because of it. Here are some thoughts that have led to this approach in our lives: 1) Partly it’s a reaction to some brushes with darkness in my childhood 2) Our own parents put their foot down when it came to “innocent”,”funny”,“dark” sitcoms 3) It’s rooted in Scripture – “I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.” 4) We don’t want our family to be unnecessarily susceptible to its influence.

Living above the fray is easier said then done. When we lived in the States, life was more predictable or at least more controllable. Here we find ourselves having to grapple with the darkness. At the moment the country is beginning preparations for Day of the Dead which means it is impossible to escape the “dead” theme. We watch people stream by our house on the way to the cemetery carrying gardening tools and flowers, we see skeletons sold at traffic lights and watch venders come out of the woodwork to sell paraphernalia for building altars.

If only it ended there. It doesn’t. When we go in a bookstore it’s there (exhibit A), walk down the street shopping on our anniversary and we are confronted by the gods (exhibit B), we go on a church retreat to plan for the coming year and we are being watched (exhibit C), or to visit Cortez’s palace with friends (exhibit D) and of course it’s the center piece at the pyramid of the sun in Teotihuacan (exhibit E).

The girls have been attending craft class for over a year now, but only recently have they had to call us to come for them because horror stories are playing on the TV. And…think about this, we do have to spend money right? So here in my pocket I’m usually carrying an Aztec calendar stone imprinted with the gods. This is not exactly what I was envisioning for my family.

While we don’t look for demon gods under every rock, there’s no denying their presence. So where does that leave this family who has tried so hard to provide a shade of protection? Well, it doesn’t leave us untainted or unscathed. We’ve learned we are not as strong as we think we are. There are no easy winners. It does leave us humbled in our desperate need for Christ. Thankful that the cross trumps it all. And we are left grappling with this present darkness.

Exhibt A

Exhibt B

Exhibt C

Exhibt D

Exhibt E