The Enchantment

So…. When I lived in the Northwest during the whole Covid, BLM and the George Floyd uproar, I decide to take a walk on a nearby trail. After all, all the “drama” wasn’t really among us I thought. Well, along this trail I was a met with a man jogging, who stopped to kneel before me, saying “greetings in the name of papa legba”. I was caught off guard. He asked if I knew who papa legba is. I said, “No, please get up.” Then he says “you will” and continues to jog off.

Confused, I look up ‘papa legba’ later that evening and find something to the affect of:

… an evil deity, a demon, that thrives on certain Haitian roots. He is the contact between the world of spirit and flesh...

I’m not gonna lie, it felt almost enchanting to have someone kneel before me. The bewilderment led to an inappropriate innocence that comes along with a euphoria of superiority. What can I do with this power? While it was a fleeting feeling, it was evident for even a moment.

Leaning into this, especially during a time of racial unrest and flagrant justification of those who look like me, like “us”, the black or brown lives among us. Now I mattered. I didn’t matter before of course, but now, with a man of caucasion persuasion kneeling before me, now I – we mattered.

Of course, I’m being sarcastic here… I’ve always felt like I mattered in Christ. 🙂

However in this month, deemed as “black history month,” we a nation either resist or push for the new thing that is causing uproar among us, we must remember that there is a real ‘papa legba’ for everyone. It may not be something that uses pigment to glorify itself, but there is always someone or something that embodies this deity.

There is a common thread of circumstances that have allowed each of us to experience some kind of ‘papa legba’ enchantment, dark or light, based on pigment, gender, influence, and/or more. Some are more tangible than others, some more damaging, some subtle, some extreme, but nevertheless… the enchantment finds a way to present itself.

Beware of this enchantment, and the feeling of superiority that comes with it. Superiority that expresses itself in disaffection for brothers and sisters of the same Way. We find it in our exhaustion of struggling alongside those with different ranks, cultural nuances, pigments, age, etc. We find it in our resentment of how God has blessed another, while he has kept the same ‘blessing’ from us. We find it in our general disdain, or lack of fortitude for human life, in our ‘what about me’ attitudes, in our unbelief at the things happening in the world around us… the things the Lord said would happen.

This man, kneeling before me on that day, appearing humble. It was a moment. A moment where I had to decide whether I was gonna let the enchantments of this life make me feel superior based on a passing characteristic. Whether I was going to allow my pigment to be exalted in that moment as a spiritual gateway to pride and every kind of evil that comes along with this type of exaltation.

We live day to day in that moment. Moments that flesh meets spirit. What’s your ‘papa legba?’ Is there some part of society kneeling before you…. just waiting for you to exercise all the evil tendencies that the flesh longs for? Or are you the one who’s kneeling?

(Philippians 2:10-11; Isaiah 30:20-22; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Mark 1:8)

Thank you for reading. Don’t forget to comment, like, subscribe and share!