Matt W Cook

Have you ever read the Wheel of Time? You should. It’s a great fantasy series that is liked even by people who don’t like fantasy. Go get it.

If you’ve read it you probably know about one of the strange servants of the Dark One: Grey Men (Gray Men?) A Grey Man is someone who sells his soul to the Dark One in exchange for the power to go about unnoticed. It’s not that he becomes invisible. You just don’t notice him. Until he plunges a knife into your chest, of course.

Defeating a Grey Man is theoretically easy, actually. It’s just noticing that he’s there at all that is the problem.

It seems that it’s the same way with the Christian life. Satan does not always roar as he prowls around. The Shadow which sometimes looks like an angel of light, and sometimes it looks like a Grey Man. Which is to say it looks like nothing at all.
But you know what? Rand al’Thor, the hero of the Wheel of Time, was never beaten by a Grey Man. No Grey Man even came close, really. Why? Because Rand was paranoid. Rand thought there was a servant of the Dark One around every corner. And he was mostly right. Good thing he was paranoid, too. Otherwise he’d be dead.

I realize that I’m not paranoid. In the physical world that’s a good thing. But in the spiritual war I signed up for, it’s a stupid thing. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I am a servant of the light in a mortal battle against the shadow. How have I been able to survive so long without being paranoid?

We’re in a war. There are casualties in war. And I think most of the casualties are the ones who live out that very word: CASUALty. A casual soldier is a dead one. We need to watch more. Pray more. Fight more.

Beware the Grey Man.

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