We once tried to cast the devil out of our Land Rover. Not metaphorically. Properly. Hands laid, voices raised, probably a few authoritative finger points. It’s an elderly 1960 Series II long-wheelbase, and somewhere in the highlands of Tanzania, the extremely questionable fuel we’d just bought in Mbeya began vaporising like it had aspirations to become incense. The engine spluttered, coughed dramatically, and died in instalments. Nothing like this had ever happened before, so naturally we concluded: demons. And so, the exorcism commenced. Sadly, the demons of Mbeya proved stubborn. To this day they still tremble at the sight of an old Land Rover, but that’s mostly because of the smoke. Eventually we realised it wasn’t the devil; it was the fuel. Marriage has many parallels with a couple attempting to cross Africa in an old Land Rover. Like this one. Often, we assume our marriage is under spiritual attack, when in fact, we’ve simply let some dodgy influence into the tank and now everything’s running like a lawnmower full of gravel. Keep what comes into your lives clean.