Remember this little song from when you were in Sunday
School as a child:
O be careful
little eyes what you see
O be careful
little eyes what you see
There's a Father
up above
And He's looking
down in love
So, be careful
little eyes what you see
Since childhood,
I have been fascinated with magic and
illusionists. I remember when I was around 14 years of age we had some friends
join us for dinner at our house. I decided to show them a "magic"
trick in which I put a wooden match in a handkerchief and then had the man and
his wife feel the wooden match wrapped inside the handkerchief. After they
confirmed that the match was there and indeed unbroken, I had the wife snap the
match stick in half. After saying some "magic" words to make the
match stick be restored, I opened the handkerchief to reveal an
"unbroken" match stick. The wife was totally amazed and thought it
was a great "trick". The husband, on the other hand, wanted to
inspect the handkerchief and upon close inspection found the secret seam that
contained the broken match stick. The secret had been found out!
Over the years I
have continued to have a fascination with illusionists and have learned quite a
bit about how illusions are accomplished. The keys to all illusionist's success
are those people who assist in the illusion and the fact that we tend, as
humans, to accept what we "see" as being true and almost irrefutable.
Especially in large illusions, without a faithful assistant who helps the
illusionist "deceive" the eyes of the audience, the illusionist would
have a really hard time accomplishing the feat. Over the years I have learned
that "magic" wasn't really my calling in life but I still love to see
a good "magic" show from time to time. Even though I understand how a
lot of the illusions are accomplished, I still love to watch them because it is
just plain fun.
Several months ago, due to an accident with a deer about a
mile from our house, some friends of ours had to borrow our Sante Fe to travel
up to visit a college. Everything worked out well for them on the trip and we
were glad to assist. I mention this to provide an object lesson. Although my Santa Fe Indiana Wesleyan
University
As I have stated
in the past, things that happen in the physical realm have application in the
spiritual realm and vise-versa. Over the last several months I have viewed some
things going on within my circle of friends that I have had to apply some of
those spiritual decision making principles to that I spoke about in my "Now
What God" post.
As much as I wish it were not
true, as Christians we are not immune to making judgments about other people
without knowing the full truth. Sometimes we listen to those disgruntled people
who run around promoting "illusions" as facts that support their own
less than honorable agendas. I don't argue that it is extremely challenging to
know what is truth because so many people have become so adept at telling lies
that appear to be truth. That is why I keep reiterating that we as Christians
need to keep God first and foremost in our decision making process. We need to
seek God to reveal to us what is truth and what is not. That may not happen
instantaneously, so I also ask that people don't act on impulse and do things
that could be damaging to another person's spiritual, economical, emotional or
physical well being based on the "illusions" presented by others and
that people will wait on the Lord to lead them into what they should be doing. In
the mean time, we need to practice 1 John 3:18 which states, "Dear
children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."
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