Roaches are horrible, disgusting creatures. I’m sure they have purpose in the outdoors, helping break down organic material and serving as quick snacks for large spiders, lizards and birds.

But I can’t think of a good reason to have them in your home, other than maybe to motivate you to clean or to keep the people employed who make roach sprays and traps.

I’ve heard that if you see one roach then there are a hundred (or thousand, depending on what source you find) you don’t see. And once you find one roach, it seems you can’t kill them quickly enough to get rid of them all.

I remember being in a basketball gym one night many years ago where we had seen a few roaches. After cleaning and shutting down for the night, I turned off the lights — located on a switch nowhere near the exit door — and walked toward the exit. I heard rustling and then crunching under my shoes.

So I turned around and went back to the light switch and flipped the floods on. It looked like a carpet of roaches on the gym floor. They scattered and disappeared into the walls all around

When I was able to close my mouth from the shock, I switched off the light and hurried for the door. It was a quick, crunchy walk-run. I called the owners of the gym and begged them to fumigate it like it was nuclear war.

Other things remind me of these roaches.

There’s a crooked politician in Washington? Flick the lights off and the floors will be covered before you can take three steps.

There’s a Hollywood movie star or executive who’s made inappropriate sexual advances or worse? Click the lights on and watch the masses scatter.

Someone was exposed for possession of child pornography or for exploitation of a child? Run across the floor and hear the crunching of the carcases.

It’s a plague. It seems they keep coming out of the woodwork and that no matter how many are sprayed, ensnared or crunched … they just keep coming.

Pray. Protect. Persevere.

You know what else keeps going? Goodness and hope and the love of God. Let’s see if we can make that become a bigger “infestation” than all the “roaches.”

Brett Campbell can be reached at brett.campbell@dailyleader.com or 601-265-5307.