In one of the pandemic days of 2020, I experienced a day of battle.

I was supposed to have a 10 am technical rehearsal for the DOLE-ILS talk that I would be doing. The program starts at 2 pm.

A few minutes before logging in to Zoom, my mother screamed.

The switch of our ceiling fan in the kitchen suddenly sparked with a smoke. My brother immediately turned off our main circuit breaker.

The ceiling fan was not turned on at all. My mother wasn’t using it.

At the moment, I somehow knew that someone – or something – wants to have a fight with me.

When the technical rehearsal came at 11 am, my microphone, headset, and my desktop were not in harmony. The DOLE-ILS Team said my voice was inaudible. How ironic when I use the same old things when recording my podcast!

I logged in using my laptop. It has the same problems.

Someone – or something – really wants a fight.

This was not the first time this happened to me. In January, I was having trouble sleeping the night before my voice-over assignment at Feast Ermita. I told Ariane Astorga about it, telling her that I might not have the energy and the wits to do my assignment the next day because I still couldn’t catch my sleep at 1 am.

Then she said, “Ann, sometimes, it’s the evil’s way of working so that you won’t be able to do your purpose.”

When I heard that, it became clear to me: Someone’s picking up a fight. And it wants me to lose. After finding out who the enemy was and what it wanted, I re-strategized.

I know that it was the same enemy today, asking for another round.

It didn’t want me to share the message that I was to share.

You know why?

Close to 200 people from the government agencies and local government units attended, aside from the individual participants who wanted to know about virtual careers.

More than 1,000 people were reached by Facebook Live streaming. I know there would be more people watching the replay.

I was flooded with virtual careers-related questions after the talk. And I bet my inbox is flooded right now.

I did not share these to brag. This wasn’t my show.

The truth is, if the devil knows you’re too blessed, he’s going to pick up a fight with you. And you do not know the enemy, you will blame everything, everyone, even God.

I just kept on praying together with my family until the talk ended. All was well.

You know the enemy. But you shouldn’t fight with it without the One who would always avenge us.

I do not share these things often because you might think that this is a woo woo thing. That these things should not be talked about. That this is faith-based. I respect you if you may thinking and saying so. But if you still think that this pandemic is made out of conspiracy theories and of selfish people who ate bats, think twice.

This could be the evil’s way of tearing us apart.

Pray more. Pray much.