The Great and True Story

 Today's post is dedicated to my dear friend, mentor, and co-author, Norm Sawyer, who is celebrating his birthday today, May 1st! Happy birthday, Norm! During the mess that was 2020, Norm was the one outside of the US that I was able to continually turn to outside of my family, for solid Godly wisdom and advice. He turned me around when I sure felt the walls closing in around me. It could have been a very dark time, but because of his strong faith and continued trust in the Lord, I felt his strength and example leading me to a much brighter perspective. It's true that some people do make a difference in our lives if we pay attention to what they are trying to teach us. Always pay attention to the lighthouses and the lightkeepers in your lives, friends. Enjoy the blessings of your birthday, Norm. May the joy and love you bring to others be returned tenfold to you! (Sirnorm.com)

You're standing in line at the grocery store or the gas station, and someone starts in on some real "out there" (to you) topic. You realize you're an involuntary hostage to a barrage of odd theories from a person who just found a sitting duck to unleash them upon. I've been there. You see the post on social media, "The mainstream media won't tell you this!" You've been at the social gathering and heard the rabbit hole topics going around. Oh boy, down, down down it goes, and you scroll on by, or you painfully smile and carry on, and you sigh the big sigh, because what else can you do, right? You know the drill. There is rarely, if any follow- up to the information being dealt out. It's not a conversation, but rather a spewing of bits and odd things strung together, sometimes with a shred of truth in there, made to sound like a fact. One lie has the power to tarnish a thousand truths. Al David In this way, you can't really come back with a question or a fact, because the mind has already been made up, and you will sound like their enemy. I know, this sounds insane even as I'm imagining it and have lived it. It's as fun as an umbrella in a windstorm. Inside you're kind of fighting to keep it together, while on the outside trying to keep yourself safe from any kind of storm. 

Who is immune to conspiratorial thinking? Who can rise above allowing their minds to become entrenched in believing all sorts of unhealthy, unreasonable and distorted concepts? Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known by God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  There is an answer when we are careful not to become enraged, worried, or even self-righteous about the things we hear. When we instead ask God to filter our hearts and replace His understanding for our own human and flawed thinking. We can become peaceful in our thoughts and in our actions, and rest in the fact that God is in control, though things and others may be raging around us.  Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, I believe all conspiracy theories are garbage. All of them. Not one of them contains knowledge, but is filled with the capacity to spread fear, insecurity, and discord among large quantities of people. What they all have in common is they might contain just a kernel of truth so that we start to wonder if they could be true. They're ripe with confusion, and who else revels in confusion? Who else enjoys this kind of division and havoc?  1Peter 5:8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  I have watched many people "go off the deep end" with their careless rhetoric and lose their critical thinking skills in many subjects.  I have heard many people, who in the name of "good intentions" and even with God's name and in the spirit of "sharing the truth," spread information that is damaging to others, and isn't truthful at all. What message are they thinking we're taking in? What do you want me to do with it? 

Digressing for a moment here, I've always been a skeptical person. You'll be hard-pressed to get me to believe what you're selling if it's the least bit sketchy. I laugh when I think of the time some students tried to pressure me into signing a bogus petition to say something mean about a teacher. I was one of very few that refused to sign it. I simply said, "I don't like him either, but I'm not signing my name to that. It's not true and it's mean." They ostracized me for a couple days and that was that. I've been building myself up for a time when I will be very unpopular for the beliefs I hold. But as Norm kept reminding me, 'You and God are a majority.' We can't be afraid to lose friends over the truth. But we should be concerned if we're losing them when we're not even sure about it. 

 Maybe there is some kind of satisfaction in hitting that share button, or the spewing of words because there is a kind of comfort in expressing our shared fear, or validation when others agree with us. I don't know, but  if that's the case, then these things are clearly being heard and said out of fear and frustration and not out of a clear desire to be enlightened, or understood with concern and protection. There is a clear difference. If we want our messages heard so that they make a difference for the better, we need to change our hearts and minds with the right motives first. We need to make sure what we say is truly for the good of others and not just because we think it's for the good of others. That requires setting our own egos aside. It demands we look around at the people we follow in life, and question whether or not they are the good examples of truth and integrity we think they are. Are we really following a person of good character, or are we just looking to validate whatever we hope to be true? It's never a bad idea to examine our own motives, or look around and take stock of where we receive information. Is it fun to be wrong? No, it's very humbling, but when God deals with us, it can also be very powerful, because when we allow God to show us where we've gone astray, he replaces that pride with a strong character. Proverbs 22:4 The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. 

 Any one of us, Christians included, can be deceived to share wrong information. Sometimes out of fear and insecurity, and sometimes out of anger. Maybe we think it's the right information and we think we're helping. We've all said something we thought was true and found out later that it wasn't. The problem with that is, we didn't take the time to analyze it before we quickly said it or shared it, and there is a great responsibility in what we've just said. Proverbs 10:19 Sin is not ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues. I often think about the things I post long after I've said them. I wonder if my words are making a positive impact, or if I've hurt someone needlessly. As my comment tagline says, Words matter. Choose them carefully. I have to practice what I preach too! As  1Peter 5:8 states, our enemy is prowling around, just looking to destroy us. This includes what we say and how we interact with others. He would love for all of our relationships to fail, because it is in relationships that Jesus thrives. Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' We have to be wise with our words and that starts with our thoughts. Matthew 15:11 What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them." 

 Asking God to temper our hearts and direct our thoughts and our words is the only way to guarantee we are going to have right information, clear heads, and will only speak when we have something He wants us to share. Imagine how quiet it would be on social media. Ahhhh...But even more importantly, how much more at peace our own hearts would be when not cluttered with all the things causing fear, insecurity and unrest on a daily basis? Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.  

And just to touch again on those pesky so-called conspiracy theories. We have a responsibility for what we are absorbing into our own brains. Not just because the spilling of it could negatively affect others, but because the carrying of it hurts ourselves too. Sure, the oranges are going to believe what the oranges say, and the apples will believe what the apples say, but what do YOU believe? You, deep down inside your heart that God designed? You, standing there not caring what anyone else thinks or says, but only listening to your own heart? You and God are a majority, after all. Psalm 56:4 In God, whose word I praise-in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? 

Like I said above, some things are just designed to spread fear, and if we are a part of that, we've fallen into the trap of the enemy. If we want to be part of a Big Deal Story, let's be a big deal part of the One that sets us apart from all of those rotten-to-the-core stories that when re-told, rot us all a little more inside. I'm staying true to my story, and I reject the ones that cause my heart to fear. I trust in the Lord and His great story. I pray that you will believe in that story with me. I'm going to keep spreading His messages, because they are true and they bring peace. Blessings. 

Psalm 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.