Growing up, moving seemed like something only pastor’s kids or military brats did.
Occasionally, a new student would nervously stand in front of the class and be introduced by the teacher, where we would learn that it wasn’t a parent’s job that brought them to town.
It usually went something like this: “Tim and his mom had to move to Texas to be closer to family because Tim’s father died.”
That was it. Tim or Tammy, whoever the student was that year, would take a seat, look around at their new life, and shrink into the space between their ears as they pulled out a notebook and pencil to start the day.
Those were the doodlers – the kids either missing someone or something or wishing they were somewhere else.
Death, like sex, was something no one talked about much when I was a preteen unless it was sensationalized: some gory tale about a serial killer or a motorcycle wreck with a good heap of creative liberties taken by the storyteller. We never knew the person who had gotten killed. If we did, the closer the deceased was in our family tree, the less anyone spoke of it.
Sex was similar but flipped. If someone we knew at school was already having sex, it was talked about. That was the story. But even this story was spoken in hushed voices.
Nowadays, things are still sensationalized, but the voices are louder and much less selective.
Nothing and no one is off limits.
The more brazen the topic, the more details are highlighted. Ironically, the storyteller’s high has become increasingly centered on the freedom they allow themselves to be brash, using the narrative as an excuse for their behavior.
As a result, maintaining a sense of grace and decorum is often seen today as a sign of cowardness. Restraint has become the antithesis of freedom.
A modern-day Tower of Babel has been constructed out of pride; people focus more on being heard than being respectable and truthful.
And if what is being propagated is false, then it is only considered false by those who oppose it, as truth has become subjective.
Sharing “my truth” has become the ego’s mirage.
Better put, the ego itself has become a mirage: We live in a world of little gods who think little of God.
The play of Satan is simple. Entertain to distract people from having a healthy conscience and caution about walking away from God and meaningful connections with family, friends, and neighbors.
Satan loves to divide and isolate. He encourages “addiction of rights” by pitting us against one another and calling the other “wrong.” Add anger, disappointment, and fear to the “cause,” and people begin to feel robbed when the uprising outside of themselves no longer matches their internal unrest.
As a consequence, more is sacrificed. More is required to produce the mirage that our welfare is being addressed and tended to.
Eventually, everyone becomes accepted out of fear of not being accepted.
We become too high on chaos and causes to realize our moral foundation has been obliterated.
In this obliteration, people lose their identity in their very quest to claim it.
We become dependent on being entertained or, more accurately, distracted. When we are not distracted by external problems, we may start to feel anxious as we turn our focus inward and realize there’s even more turmoil and torment within us. Now, we feel even more alone, confused, and rejected.
Why? Because we have attempted to put ourselves in a place where only God can be positioned.
Humankind destroys itself, as we have proven to do, by pridefully thinking this is a battle between people. No.
Far too many have diminished or dismissed God… the One who will ultimately win the war.
“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord” (Proverbs 21:31).
We must get off our high horse and invite God to be victorious in our lives.
“The LORD your God wins victory after victory and is always with you. He celebrates and sings because of you, and he will refresh your life with his love” (Zephaniah 3:17).
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” John 14:27.
Friend, peace without God is Satan’s best lie.
This column was initially published by CherryRoad Media. ©Tiffany Kaye Chartier.