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Locked-In To Lies

We are inundated with lies. We all decide what we do with them.

I used to think it was the same decision for everyone:

*When you know it’s not true, you toss it out.

*When you don’t know for sure, you wait on proof – you know, the way jurors are required to do. Whatever turns out to be lies, you toss it out.

*When you believed a lie at first, and then facts came in that disproved it, you toss the lie and keep the truth.

Pretty simple, right?

We’re taught it as toddlers. It is reinforced in school. It is required for work. Churches teach it is a trait of God himself — God is Truth. And lies? Well that’s easy, they preach: Lies are from Satan, the father of lies.

Most simply put:

Truth is right. Lies are wrong. Don’t lie.

But now I know we don’t all make the same choices about lies.

Some actually choose them. And add to them. Then add some more.

Church people, who sat in the same pews and heard that to love God is to obey God, promptly disobey him and one of his commandments in favor of lies.

They don’t love him.

They too read Proverbs 9:10, about reverently fearing the Lord: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding”, then instead of pursuing wisdom and understanding, they grabbed their treasured lies. “Don’t take this away, it’s my everything, it’s my priority, it’s my treasure, it’s my god.”

They don’t fear him.

When someone confronts deceivers, they trash the person who is questioning them. Then add some more lies, now about the person who knows they are lying. Because …

Anyone who knows the truth about a liar is the enemy of that liar.

When facts and evidence start to roll in, deceivers refuse to alter course. Instead, they double down. They dig in. They lock-in.

They search out people to confirm them, agree and double down with them, and attack whoever dares still shine a light on their now elevated lies.

No matter the mounding evidence that their lies are … just that … frickin’ lies, they remain committed to them.

“Final answer?” the game show host queries. “Final answer”, they declare.

“Lock-in your answer” the game show host directs. And they lock-in another lie.

Those people. Those people who are committed to lies. They are in our homes, and at family and friend gatherings. They are our neighbors, classmates, and coworkers. They are our pastors and our store clerks. They are our nurses and policemen. They are our lawyers and PTA members. No title or degree, no lifestyle or alliances reveal who the lovers of lies are.

Observation tells us who the lovers of lies are.

Once you know, you know.

And then what?

If you care enough about truth, if you value facts, if you live your own life to tweeze out and discard each and every lie, and keep only facts …

Then you change your relationship with liars.

Each one is uniquely involved in your life, so each one is handled differently.

It’s critical that you do it well. If you don’t, every little compromise of the right way to handle it opens a crack to allow their lies to infiltrate your own mind.

So how do you do it well?

With wisdom.

If you haven’t been valuing wisdom, you’re late to navigating life well. Wisdom takes time, experience, and an open mind to always learning. It starts with a little bit of wisdom in your own personal storehouse labeled “wisdom”, and grows to bigger and bigger piles of it.

If you keep at it. It’s lifelong work.

Wisdom doesn’t come easily, it comes in the tough stuff of life. It requires staying strong enough to learn when all you want to do is wilt into a pity party. You don’t get to pamper yourself when the class of wisdom is in session. You don’t get to play victim to rally others to pamper you, when the window of wisdom is open.

If you’ve been doing the high road stuff, the strong stuff, the hard stuff, and foregoing taking it easy so that you can gain wisdom, because you value wisdom that much …

You’re on the right track to dealing with lies and liars.

If you haven’t been doing that, it’s yet another choice in this life of choices.

Do you want to become wise, to handle life as effectively as possible? Then choose to do it, and plan on it being work. It’s not acquired by osmosis. It’s not a passive infusion that crosses your brain barrier from those who have worked hard for it to lazy, self-indulgent you. It’s damn hard work. It’s yours and only yours to do.

If you don’t choose it, then you are choosing the opposite of wise. That’s called fool.

The choice is yours.

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God Knows

I wonder … Is there truly concern that people in America are not going to know God?

That is again the reasoning many Christians give for backing Donald Trump. With the election just fifteen days away, Trump’s supporters from religion endorse him as the candidate who not only represents the ideals of Christ, but who was chosen by God to lead America.

It is claimed that without him and the GOP, we will eventually become a godless nation. With him and the GOP, we will “return” to God.

There are innumerable examples of Trump’s behaviors and words to refute that God would choose a human like him to lead our nation, but let’s keep it simple: let’s look only at the alleged need for our nation to be “saved” for God by Trump and his supporters.

Does the amalgam of conservative, Bible-based churches and conservative, Republican-party activism truly care that people today and in the future are not going to know God?

Or, if people are honest, is the real concern that the world has changed, and the social order of the mid-20th-century is lost? Was the white-male-dominant past better, when punitive measures and theologies could achieve subjugation of less powerful people to their wills?

Could that be why a branch of Christianity is doubling down on legalism, proselytizing, and a theology of a punitive God? – to get their power back? And for those who acquired power during his term, could it be that they got a taste of it, loved it, and don’t want to relinquish it?

I suppose power is an attractive thing in the eyes of those people, but is it a good thing in the eyes of God? They know their Bibles when they pull scriptures to justify themselves and condemn others; they know what God says about that kind of power. Do they care about that? Do they care about Him?

Religious affiliation does not equate to pleasing God. From the same Bible that people select scriptures to justify self-righteous theologies, is this, from Jesus:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”

Speaking of the Bible, when did the scripture, “God so love the world …” get changed to “God so loved the USA … “? When did we elevate patriotism to equal stature as God? Isn’t that the definition of idolatry?

Could it be that “outsiders” look at religious Christians who claim to represent God, and their condemning, rejecting, hypocritical, and oppressive attitudes are what caused their flight from the Church?

For those who might have shown interest, did they arrive to open doors, or did they arrive to literal and metaphorical bouncers, judging them as unfit to enter?

If they were allowed to enter, were they immediately taken on as a project by those inside, to transform them to the culture of that church? Did people take over God’s role to do the transforming; to “cleanse and make each person whole”? Is God allowed to free them from captivity, or do religious zealots actually compete with God, and push him aside in order to keep people ensnared?

Are the people who flee those kinds of churches able to separate God from the people who claim to represent him?

If not, who is to blame for their resultant aversion to anything of God? – Let’s be honest. It’s far too often the people inside.

Song credit and purchase information: “I Won’t Sing Here Anymore” from the release by Koonce-Ross-Fraser entitled “New American Blues”. Nine tracks available on Bandcamp.com for individual tracks or the entire CD: https://marvrindyrossquarterflash.bandcamp.com/album/new-american-blues.

‘I Won’t Sing Here Anymore’ © 2019 Marvin Webster Ross (ASCAP) Narrow Dude Music

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You Choose Where To Put Down Your Roots

You may have noticed that when in the presence of certain people, you thrive. Something about their nature allows you to flourish. They draw out your best qualities and nurture your growth.

They promote your potential.

It helps immeasurably to get to know God one-on-one, so that you recognize those people who are extensions of Him, and who will offer an atmosphere of righteous support and wise direction for your steady growth and betterment.

The more you know God, the easier it will be to recognize those people who are not reinforcing what He is growing within you.

They are not drawing out your best qualities and nurturing their growth. Instead, they cause your best self to retreat. Those people stymie your gifts, your personality, and your well-intended aspirations and values.

They quench your potential.

Difficult people will always be in your midst, but you can control where you put down your roots. You can interact with most people without having to embed yourself in the same ground in which they are rooted. 

Mingle, converse, disregard, listen, learn, laugh and enjoy when you cross paths … but only plant yourself in ground where righteousness is nurtured.

There may be seasons in your life when nobody provides fertile ground for your growth. Still, you are not without opportunity to bloom — put down your roots in the love of God, and in the careful guidance of His Holy Spirit. 

With Him, you are guaranteed luxuriant development of all that is good within you.

Video credit goes to the film company, MUVI, with Youtube license, muviag.