eerie lullaby.

Dark.

It is time for bed and sleep.

But alas, once again, I hear the drums and the singing.  It is a strange and eerie sort of lullaby that, in no way, puts me to sleep. 

It is witchcraft.  The beating of drums and the chanting of songs by people with empty hopes.  The people in villages gather around a sick person and drum for three hours in the hopes that this will please the evil spirit and the sickness will leave.  Or people walk just outside the village to sing together, haunting melodies, in the hopes that it will be offering enough.

If they think the problem warrants it, they will also kill a black goat and have it lying beside them as they beat the drums and chant the songs.  Blood or feces may even be wiped upon the sick person, on the place on the person’s body where it is hurting the most.  Or the goat may simply lie there to protect them as they sing.

Every night.

As I go to sleep I hear this cry to emptiness, this empty effort to somehow gain the pleasure of empty gods, empty spirits.  How I yearn to let the Toposa know that there is another option instead of drumming for and singing to emptiness!

There is a life of fullness that could be theirs. 

An abundant life awaits those who choose to call on the name of the Lord.  

And a real and present and powerful God is here—listening.

“The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy.  I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”  John 10:10

May this truth be my lullaby no matter how many drums I hear! Jesus brings life!