just say ...abracadabra

There is something that I particularly enjoy about watching a skilled magician deceive me with ease. I love to be amazed by the simplest tricks that challenge my understanding of what I believe I am seeing. Somehow there is this fundamental disconnect in my understanding of reality that happens in a blink of an eye. How easy it is for us to be deceived by others even when we know it and are on alert to the clues of the magician. God was keenly aware of our ability to be deceived as it is a major tool Satan uses to destroy our lives. There is a real basic design flaw within us. We have struggled with the consequences of being easily fooled for a really long time. From the very beginning of our presence on earth, Satan has been the greatest deceiver ever. We know that and we are constantly reminded to be on guard against deceptions of the enemy. God speaks to us throughout the Bible warning us over and over to be alert to various deceptions that can masquerade themselves. However, even worse than the deception of Satan and others is how easily and frequently we can deceive ourselves. In a recent blog, VirtueOnline, Ted Schroder, states,
“Self-deception is a shadowy phenomenon by which we pull the wool over some part of our own psyche. We put a move on ourselves. We deny, suppress, or minimize what we know to be true. We assert, adorn, and elevate what we know to be false. We prettify ugly realities and sell ourselves the prettified versions...We become our own dupes, playing the role of both perpetrator and victim. We know the truth - and yet we do not know it, because we persuade ourselves of its opposite. We actually forget that certain things are wrong and that we have done them. To the extent that we are self-deceived, we occupy a twilight zone in which we make up reality as we go along, a twilight zone in which the shortest distance between two points is a labyrinth.....A moment's reflection reminds us that self-deception has long been a growth industry. Why do alcoholics and other drug users typically go through years of self-denial? Why is the revelation of incest an astonishment to people who are living right in the middle of it?...Why do battering husbands offer minimizing and euphemistic accounts of the beatings they administer, and why do battered wives sometimes accept and repeat those accounts?" Jesus calls such self-deception 'hypocrisy'. Under the guise of doing good, of polishing one's image, vices masquerade as virtues. We learn to present something falsely, to make our presentation credible, and to avoid exposure. Even Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor.11:14) in order to look merely plausible. Evil appears in disguise. Hence our need for the Holy Spirit's gift of discernment. Hence the sheer difficulty, at times, of distinguishing good from what is evil. As sinners we try to keep up appearances. We are acutely sensitive to what others may think of us. Hence the constant attempt to explain, to justify, to rationalize, and to scapegoat evil. We want to appear to be good people.”
That desire to appear to be a good person is what gets us into so much trouble. We work hard to maintain appearances and to fool people much as a magician does. Our energy is spent creating a false reality where our faith is never engaged. We become only hearers of the Word and are single mindedly focused on image and our ability to exert influence. This is not what God intended. In James 1:22-25 it says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” It is clear we are called to be doers and goers and not to sit idly by, not putting our faith to work in a risky way and living out of the confining boxes that have become our churches. This is where the real magic happens…when we serve others and advocate for social justice for the oppressed. Sawing a pretty girl into two halves or making an elephant disappear pales in comparison…anybody can do that…

the hardest thing to say...thank you

I sometimes am reminded about how blessed I am in a lot of different areas of my life. Some people like to call it luck…but I really dislike that term as it relates every good and bad thing that happens to chance. I actually used to think that way a long time ago. I suppose if we believe that we live by chance and total randomness then we live as victims of the whims of fate. Unfortunately, the problem with that is we don’t have to accept any responsibility for anything that happens. We just say that we have good or bad luck. The other problem with living on luck is that you lose your ability to be thankful and have gratitude. This is a big deal to me because it removes God from the equation. I think being thankful and having the ability to recognize where all that I receive flows from is critical to understanding our purpose and connection to God. I tend to look at things very simply sometimes and having gratitude and being thankful is one of those things. I really believe that the reason that people so easily forget this basic etiquette is this unspoken sense of entitlement that we live by. A sense of entitlement robs others of the ability to bless me because I already believe I deserve what I am receiving and therefore am unable to be thankful. The core attitude of being able to give thanks is humility. Humility is defined as, "A quality by which a person considering his own defects has a humble opinion of himself and willingly submits himself to God and to others for God's sake." One can readily see that submission to God and others is a key component. Perhaps this is where the rub lies. This is where we fail to understand. This is where we fall down. We are not submitting to anyone or anything except for our own selfish desires. It is in that submission to God that we recognize the inadequacy of the skill sets and talents we possess and become dependent and reliant on God just as He designed and intended. People, as we are prone to say, like to “live large”. We become legends in our own minds. We are measured by our Facebook and Twitter followers and blog statistics. Social media has become the barometer of our self worth and how we are valued by others. We assume a persona which is another word for a mask. This is not what God intended. We have become Gods bratty children expecting a cosmic “happy meal” with the latest cool toy inside. We have it all wrong. Very wrong. God wants you to have manners like back in the old days when we said please and thank you and may I be excused from the table. God doesn’t want you to wear masks because that interferes with people seeing Him in you. The thing that is... the most amazing part of all this is... that despite our inability to acknowledge the source of everything we have and are and to say thank you…He keeps right on giving. "Thankful people recognize their need, and the generosity and beneficence of the Giver, and every truly grateful person is humbled by the amazing gifts he’s received from God. So I see that true humility will always be accompanied by gratitude, and also, that those who are truly grateful will be growing in the beautiful characteristic of humility. May it be so for us."

in the blink of an eye...

While at work,someone asked me yesterday,“where’s MY golden years?”I stopped and realized that I didn’t have anything profound, witty or comforting to say.She was lying there in her bed,looking at me and waiting…Waiting for me to tell her how to find that which,by all estimations,is gone.She recently had one of her legs amputated right below the knee.She sleeps a lot.Maybe she dreams of that life she imagined to happen when she finally was able to enjoy the fruit of years of labor working toward those elusive golden years.She had plans to spend a lot of time with the husband she has been with almost fifty years.She planned to be one of those grandmas that go to tea parties,the zoo,and on picnics.But everything changes. Because of choices we make in one part of our life there often times are consequences in later parts of our lives.She likes to cook.She and her husband owned restaurants.Now she watches The Food Network on a small television on her dresser. Things change…a lot.Some dreams don’t change and they die hard. Sometimes they die with us.Maybe that’s the last part of us to let go in the slow march to our graves. Maybe that’s all that really keeps us alive sometimes.We desperately cling and hang on to something that takes on a healing and saving role.I have never been one to dash anyone’s dreams or belief in potential miracles.My job is to bring hope and encouragement. If you are an encourager you are truthful and will not give fake compliments and fan the flames of false hope.You don’t have trite textbook answers to the hard questions.You are one of God’s greatest miracles and capable of bringing the truth and hope that lives within us.Encouragers will tell you to do the thing you are called to do—the thing you are most enthusiastic about, the thing that makes you smile just thinking about it—and never worry about how something will happen. Encouragers know that the “how” always shows up when you follow your heart. Encouragers help us to see possibilities that sometimes are obscured by our lack of vision. This is the thing that is so much more important than any pill I can bring you today.Being here in the moment…being present is the thing that goes beyond what is easily understandable.On the days that I struggle the most with the whys of what I do and where I work God speaks to me in a way I can’t ignore.He picks that certain someone who disarms me and challenges me to remember that I am a mere dispenser of his grace…nothing more and nothing less.I have no easy set answers for your hard question today but…I’m listening,God.

rewarming leftovers...

I used to not be much of a challenge or adventure guy. I was always the spectator on the sidelines. All that got changed a couple of years ago when God called me to this crazy thing that was very far from anything I would ever do...or even consider. It was called THE RIDEWELL BIKE TOUR. Yeah, a bicycle tour across America. Did you hear that "across Ameica" part? Me God? You're kidding, God? Right? No He wasn't and it happened and I did it and my life was forever changed over the course of a summer one pedal stroke at a time. Well...as they say,"Here we go again". Yes it's true. I am going on another amazing bike ride this summer, only in a different direction literally and figuratively.I am not going across the US, I am going from south to north. I will be biking THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD BIKE TOUR from Mobile Alabama to Buffalo New York, a total of about 1808 miles.
The Underground Railroad Tour starts in one of the dominate slave ports in American history and follows the "Freedom Trail" by tracing the rivers and routes of freedom seekers from the deep south to the free land in the north.
The team will stop in churches and communities en route to raise support and enlist "Freedom Partners" for International Justice Mission, a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice system
This hisorically important route witnessed countless numbers of slaves following landmarks and signs and being helped by "conductors" on their way to freedom. However, even more important that the sheer historical significance and the thousands of people that will be made aware of the issues of Human Trafficking/Modern Slavery, there is a bigger reason I am doing this epic ride. In Isaiah 61:1 it says,
" The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners..."
It's pretty clear to me that as a follower of Christ that I under a mandate to do exactly what it says in Isaiah 61:1. I love the "proclaim freedom for the captives" part. To proclaim something means to declare publicly, typically insistently, proudly, or defiantly and to praise or glorify openly or publicly. I can't keep from thinking how much things have changed in the never ending struggle against oppression and slavery and yet they haven't changed at all. We have a long way to go and there is always hope. Our goal on this ride is not only increasing awareness but to restore hope and the belief that things can be changed by joining our voices together in the call for social justice. I urge you to join us in any manner possible to support this cause. One of the most important ways you an support us is to pray. In James 5:16 it says, "The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results". I know that it works and witnessed it many times on THE RIDEWELL BIKE TOUR where prayer moved some mighty big mountains. So, the challenging road lies ahead and I can hardly wait to see what's going to happen this summer...God is going to be busy...real busy.