Who’s Behind the Pandemonium?

By Rae Lynn DeAngelis

Are you familiar with the Allstate “Mayhem” commercials? Potentially hazardous situations are taken to the extreme through the antics of Allstate’s appropriately named spokesperson, “Mayhem”. The short clips are quite funny because most of us can relate to the depicted misfortunes on some level. And let’s be honest, when bizarre and chaotic situations in life take place, we can’t help but feel like there really is a someone or something behind it all.

Mayhem – violent or damaging disorder. Mayhem leads to pandemonium, defined as: tumult, chaos, and riotous uproar. Now, take a closer look at the word pandemonium. Do you see it – DEMON? Guess what. There really is a someone/something behind the mayhem in our lives.

I’ve seen an awful lot of pandemonium taking place these days, both personally and collectively. And yes, I know exactly who’s behind it all. “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Here’s some of the pandemonium that’s been disrupting my peace of mind in recent weeks. My elderly dad that lives 900 miles away had to move into an assisted living facility because of his declining mental and physical state caused by Alzheimer’s. I dropped everything, jumped on a plane, and flew down to Florida so I could help my mom with the move. Once dad was settled into his new living situation, I went back home.

Two days after I got back to Cincinnati, my mom called and told me she had Covid and wouldn’t be able to visit dad for several days. During that week when my mom was sick, dad had a stroke, fell several times, and began a rapid decline into the last stage of Alzheimer’s. The assisted living facility was no longer equipped to care for him, and we were told he had to be moved again.

One day after dad was moved into the new nursing home, mom fell, broke her arm, and had to recover in a rehab facility. (You can’t make this stuff up.)

I flew back down to help my parents where I could, but eventually needed to go home. At the Florida airport when I was leaving, I twisted my ankle and heard an audible pop. In extreme pain, I had to limp the rest of the way to my gate. By the time I got home, my ankle was swollen and bruised. I knew it was fractured. Ugh! (Talk about pandemonium.)

And that’s not counting the collective pandemonium that’s taking place around the world: death, destruction, failing health, job loss, inflation, supply-chain shortages, and skyrocketing gas prices. Not to mention the wars and/or rumors of wars.

Friends, none of this has been a surprise to our Lord. He’s known it was coming for thousands of years and foretold us how to get through it. Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

No matter what we face: mayhem, pandemonium, chaos, disorder, we can take comfort in knowing Jesus has overcome it all. The war has already been won. Eventually the demons will be taken out and peace will return. Praise God that we do not have to fight this battle, for the battle is the Lord’s. All we need to do is stand firm, put on the full armor of God, and pray, pray, pray.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:10).

“Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.