With Halloween approaching, October is a good month to remember that evil truly exists. I think one of the most frightening things I ever read can be found in a book, titled Crying Wind by Crying Wind (yes, that’s her name). It’s the true story of a Native American (Kickapoo) girl’s journey from darkness into light during the mid-1960s and early 1970s.
In it, Crying Wind describes an unforgettable time when she was about ten years old. She wrote:
"I knew that there must be dark, shadowy things, bad things that Grandmother and my uncles talked about when I was supposed to be asleep, but I didn’t know what they were. Even though I was curious, I wasn't sure I really wanted to know everything that went on around the reservation."Crying Wind goes on to say that a man came to the door one night. He'd been newly wed, but his wife died of pneumonia. So he had gone to the medicine man on the reservation and was told he could raise his wife from the dead if he did the following: 1) Took off his clothes and slathered his body with mud; 2) Waited for the full moon to rise; 3) Went to his wife's grave and covered it with a coyote skin.
The man did this and reported that in the third hour of his waiting, the ground began to shake and something ugly and horrible rose from out of his wife's grave "so terrifying that his mind couldn't grasp it." He knew it wasn't the spirit of his late wife and sensed the spirit was despicably evil. The man went screaming off into the night, the evil spirit right on his heels. He went from house to house, seeking help, but found no escape.
The story continues:
“What’s happening, Shima Sani (Grandmother)?” I whispered as I watched the man disappear.
“He shouldn't have done that,” she said quietly and shut and bolted the door.
* * *
Conjuring up spirits? Frightening stuff!
But, all right, I'll admit it. I'm a big honkin' chicken. It's hard for me to enjoy Christian thrillers without feeling the hairs on my neck stand up and my limbs go numb from fright. I, personally, don't enjoy being scared out of my mind.
But the plain truth is the spirit world is alive -- and about half the authors on this blog write about that very subject! Native Americans especially, I think, are aware of this fact. Crying Wind’s journey ended with her conversion to Christianity and her desire became to share God’s plan of salvation with others. She is featured on Indian Life Ministries web page.Click here to find out more.
This month when store aisles are lined with ghosts and ghouls and enough candy to make my blood sugar soar to the stars, my big honkin' chicken heart can take comfort in the words of my Savior. Christ said, “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.” (Luke 10:20 NASV)
So what's the scariest thing you've ever read in a book -- or, for the Christian horror and thriller authors, written in a book? How did that impact your life?
