Spiritual Warfare or Small Accident

We are in a war. But we do not wage war against flesh and blood, rather it is "against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).

It seems that before every major ministry event, my wife and I experience more... distractions than any other time. We tend to verbally disagree more, which has in the past led to big fights. Can you imagine having a fight with your spouse (and ministry partner) right before you have to preach a sermon about the love of God? Either I feel like a hypocrite or conviction weighs so heavy that I tear up in my sermon delivery, as if I'm preaching to myself.

Now, the scientifically acute man in me can possibly explain this away as merely stress. After all, stress builds up more before major events (i.e. major ministry). It makes sense that if both husband and wife are stressed, more fights happen.

However, something is off. For example, last week, we went to Pacific Garden Mission (a city homeless shelter). It was a snowy day and road conditions were not the best. On the way there, we were going at 45 miles an hour. Then all of a sudden, our car slid on an inter-highway ramp. I tried to steer it back in control but we ended up sliding off the ramp, doing an almost 360 degree spin, before coming to a stop beside a bush.

It's a miracle that there was even a patch of grass next to the ramp. Those living in Chicago knows that most sections of the I-90 near downtown do not have patches of grass next to it. Furthermore, there were no cars behind us or next to us, which is odd because traffic was horrible that day. In fact, right after the slid, I saw 5-6 cars coming off the ramp. It's as if something held up the cars behind us so that they wouldn't be close to us at the time.

There was a 4-foot metal pole that we knocked over. It's amazing that the extent of the damage is the tiny scratch you see here.

Now, if this were a one-time event, I'd leave it at that. But it's not. The only other time that we had any kind of close-call in Chicago was also while we were driving to do ministry at Pacific Garden Mission. And another time, while driving to Montreal for another ministry engagement, our car stalled and wouldn't go on.

Compared to other times that we'd drive, these events stand out in sharp contrast. The timing of these events are statistical improbabilities. It's as if something did not want us to get to the homeless shelter and minister to the 800 souls there. It's as if there is opposition to what we are doing. It's as if there's more than meets the eye in the events surrounding our lives. It's as if we really are waging war against spiritual forces of evil.

Let me know if you've experienced similar things.