Story of God At Work - The Witch Edition

By Hannah Lewandowski

Because of social media, we are made aware of hundreds upon hundreds of issues of impending doom that we have little agency over. The chaos of our world overwhelms us, and more often than not, we can’t stand to endure it, so we seek out something to numb us, quell our anxiety, and alleviate any discomfort.  Of course, over 60% of Gen Z and Gen Alpha have crippling anxiety (Drinko, 2024). Our minds are full of things we can’t control, giving us little space to act on the things we do indeed have the ability to change. 

So what do we do? We turn to isolation, substances, doom scrolling, unregulated social media content, eating too much or too little, indulging in hookup culture, mind-numbing hobbies, and the list goes on. To comfort our fearfully anxious souls, we have our gaze fixed horizontally instead of lifting it to the only one who can silence every fear, the one who has overcome the world. 

Whether shared frequently or not, stories of an anxious generation turning to something other than God to temporarily fix their fear and insecurities are not uncommon. Amy Blain, a college student in our Collective, boldly shares her story of falling victim to the false promises of seeking other gods, primarily introduced to her through the enemy at work in her social media feed.

Amy grew up with a Christian background, often finding herself in the church building her family worked at. She knew bible stories from her days in youth camps and Sunday School, but never took her beliefs beyond this, living a lot of her life without a deep relationship with Jesus. She was always expected to be Christian, but retrospectively, she shares that she can’t definitively say she’s always been a Christian. Amy remembers her mom sharing with her that she gave her heart to the Lord the summer she turned 7 but doesn’t remember that apart from a tiny piece of her baptism. She remembers thinking to herself, “Oh, this is just what we do”, void of a personal decision to follow Christ.

“Whether shared frequently or not, stories of an anxious generation turning to something other than God to temporarily fix their fear and insecurities are not uncommon.”

Despite not remembering choosing Jesus, Amy continued to show up to discipleship groups while feeling spiritually lost. She never intended to live in darkness or even live a double life, yet this was the very direction she was heading. In the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic during her middle and high school years, Amy found herself, as we all did, scrolling on her phone for hours, getting lost in the TikTok algorithm. She distinctly remembers coming across a woman’s video who made a convincing appeal on how one could be both a Christian and a witch, taking control of the things in your life but also obeying God. The anxiety that kept her up at night and away from large social gatherings could be resolved after all! 

However, as the old saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. Having a childhood interest in Greek mythology, witchcraft didn’t feel too far off from the stories she loved to read in years past. Amy continued to read books, visit websites, and scroll social media, looking to learn more about what it meant to be a witch. This wasn’t something she did alone, as she had a couple of friends at school who were also exploring witchcraft. They talked about and eventually put casting spells, lighting candles, and talking to another deity into practice. Amy found that spells gave her what appeared to be control over her reality, although maybe control wasn’t what she was after since she began to feel significantly more anxious when practicing witchcraft. 

The deeper she dove into practicing this, the more fearful she began to be of the woods in the backyard of her parent’s house, of the night, dark places, and the spots that used to bring her joy. Social media and the enemy at work in her mind convinced her that things like fae were real, making what is usually presented in media as whimsical and fun something frightening and unsafe. The very thing she sought out to give her control over the multitude of things causing her to be anxious only left her condition worse; more scared than ever, more lonely than ever, and the most lost she’d been throughout her entire life. 

After being interested in witchcraft for four years and identifying as a witch herself for two years, Amy recalls a distinct moment last year when she was overcome with stress due to her impending high school graduation and the heated political scene surrounding the most recent election. Crippled by her fear, she sat down on the couch in her family living room and began to weep, having convinced herself that the world was surely going to end, there was nothing she could do about it, all the while fearful of dying and uncertain of where she would go. At that moment, her dad noticed and took a seat next to her, consoling her and reminding her of the truth of scripture.

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it,” - James 1:4-5

Returning to her room after talking through her fears with her dad, Amy returneed to her bedroom, stopping in her tracks as she is overcome by an intense feeling of hearing a voice speaking to her, “Amy, you need to give up witchcraft, you need to be done”. Coming face to face with Christ, she began to weep once more and responded, “I know, God. I am done”, throwing away her tarot cards, spell jars, candles, and all witchcraft paraphernalia immediately. When our God says it is finished, we respond in reverent obedience.

Getting rid of the things that she used to practice witchcraft and worship other gods felt strange at first, as it seemed like she was giving up a part of herself, her old ways, but also incredibly freeing. Just as Jesus was nailed to the cross and raised into new life, the old ways of Amy died with Christ, and she gets to walk in redemption, for the old had passed away and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). 

Sitting on her bed after throwing these things away, Amy cried out to Jesus, saying, “I am so sorry. Would you forgive me? I don’t deserve this, but would you forgive me, and would you save me?”. And as if responding to her submission, Amy realized that the darkness she feared in her home was gone; she hadn’t been afraid of the dark ever since. Realizing the power of God overcoming her fears in real time moved her to tears once more, and it became abundantly clear that everything was going to be okay because God was in control, and that is the safest place to be. 

John 1:4-5 tells us that “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it,”. Friend, no matter what you’ve done, no matter the depth of your hurt or the hurt you’ve caused others, you are not too far gone, for the darkness can never overcome the steadfast light of Christ.