The Battle is Heated

But it's not mine

I serve the Lord Jesus Christ. That is my primary goal for breathing; everything else is secondary, tertiary - as far down you wanna go.

Almost exactly 10 years ago, I specifically and intentionally made the decision to stay here in Los Angeles because my pastor asked us to, even though it has been very hard on all of us to deal with the Organized Elite, Leftist State that rules over California. And, since I made that decision, I have been a spiritual target. Every area in my life has been in the bull’s eye of the Enemy: personal, transportation, even in areas where I’m trying to make things better, things tend to break down and fail. Crazy things have happened and the patterns are manifold. Before I tell you what these things are, I want to stress one thing: this is not a chronicle of victimhood.

I chose this life.

Let’s start with my cars. Both of them were gifts and my latest one, a 2017 Hyundai Accent, has cost me a lot of money, even though it was free. The car has been vandalized twice ($2500) and there was a hit-and-run ($500) as well. It’s just insane. No one ever bothered my previous car, a 22 year-old PT Cruiser (RIP). But one really insane thing happened with it.

I don’t talk a lot about my volunteer service at my church because, to me, talking about it seems like a violation of Matthew 6:1-4.

6 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

However, in order to tell the stories of my cars, especially with the PT Cruiser, I have to.

One day I was on my way to that service and I stopped at a Trader Joe’s, which was a regular occurrence because it’s on the way. I went in, bought stuff, walked back out and I could not find my car key. Keep in mind that I kept that key separate from my apartment keys, which was a good thing in this case which you will see.

I normally would put the key in my pocket but it was not there.

I searched around in the bag. It wasn’t there.

I looked inside the car to see if I left it in the ignition. Not there. Later, when I got inside the car, I checked the floors and the gaps. Not there.

I walked back along the very short route from my car to the entrance a dozen times. It was not there.

I went back into the store, walked around the store tons of times. It wasn't there.

I enlisted the help of the Trader Joe’s employees who were just lovely people and had them check the little carry baskets. Not there.

We checked the floor inside the store again and underneath the racks where I had been. Not there.

This occurred in October 2023 and I still have not found that key. No one tried to steal the car or open it up. I ended up having to call AAA twice - one call to get into the car and one to have it towed to my street. And, of course, I had to pay for a new key and lock: $175.

All of the transportation attacks occurred directly before I left for my volunteer service or while I was enroute.

Very strangely I've had three relationships end abruptly and in almost the same manner. They weren't my boyfriends nor “friends with benefits.” They were just men whose company I enjoyed and who I thought enjoyed mine.Then, suddenly, silence.

They reckoned me dead.

I'm sure they had perfectly sound reasons for it, and looking back and knowing what I know, I'm probably better off in the long run - especially with this one. But why were they in my life in the first place? (One of them I had studiously avoided because he's an atheist, but he kept turning up in my path.)

There were a few small “coincidences” like three personal shredders ceasing to function while I was in the midst of ordering my apartment. One of the shredders was brand new. Then my laptop failed. I tried writing this very piece via my phone but it was just too frustrating.

Do these sound like normal occurrences to you? Maybe individually. I mean cars get hit/vandalized, computers die and relationships break up all the time. I don't believe in coincidences, however.

I believe that these occurrences are attacks on my faith with the source being spiritual wickedness in high places. They are intended to discourage me and to keep me from my volunteer service at my church. And as you can probably guess from my long silence, it was working.

I talk a lot about spiritual warfare here and I guess they want me to shut up.

There are a lot of things that happened before this great spurt of strange occurrences and I think I've put them down in individual posts here and at my other blog. But putting them all together in one place gives onlookers a sense of the intensity of this battle and possibly helps you see why I came to my conclusion.

I'm not going to sit here and say that I haven't been blessed during this time as well. Real friends have helped me greatly - through prayer, encouragement, and, yes, monetarily. One of these real friends even healed my new shredder.

I mentioned that I was getting my apartment in order. In one of the boxes that I cleared out there was an old laptop at the bottom. I remembered that it wouldn't charge. But I decided to plug it in anyway and guess what! It's taking the charge. Side blessing: it's over ten years old and therefore has a DVD drive!

Another good thing in my life is that I am back on the healthy trail again. You might remember that I lost 40+ pounds in 2020 through 2021. In the intervening years, a little over half of it came back, but this year I decided I didn't like it that way.

I have power-walked for years but I had been a little flaky about it: three to four days for two miles and sometimes I would go for months not walking at all. Then I’d get back on the road, often with my back complaining about the new movement.

This year it has been six or seven days without let up since March along with more disciplined eating. Three miles at minimum. Results: I've lost 23 lbs and am back into a size 10. I’ve also hit this staircase twice so far.

Upward and painful. The perfect metaphor.

Keep in mind that I returned to my healthy ways before the breakup of my last relationship, the occurrence of which made me work even harder. Yes, I'm getting more of those looks and I'm not too holy to hope that the last guy who reckoned me dead sees me looking good and very not-dead.

I don't know when the next attack is going to occur but I'm not going to be silent about it. If people think I'm crazy then so be it.

My belief - and I got this from some very good teachers - is that the enemy doesn't attack those who belong to him. He attacks those who are making a difference in the spiritual realm, however small that difference may be.

Here's another belief I have: you can lose the gifts that God gave you if you don't use them or you let others interfere with them. One of mine: spiritual discernment.

I've been silent for so long and the weird thing about it is I know that now that I'm not silent I will have more peace. Maybe somebody out there - somebody who's making a difference for the Lord and is, therefore, under spiritual attack - will see that he or she is not alone and will keep pushing and using the gifts that God has given to each one of us.