Fear behaves like an accomplished magician.
Ever notice fear’s remarkable slight-of-hand? The big flourish, the loud bang divert our attention from the real action. LOOK OVER HERE! where nothing’s really happening, and while we’re distracted fear picks our pockets.
Fear desperately seeks to engage us with BREAKING NEWS that likely isn’t breaking and ON-SCENE REPORTERS who probably know less than the studio folks. That’s fear’s tool: the illusion of URGENT.
The terrorists (or the Russians or whomever) are coming! We need to build a wall! They’re coming for your guns! The economy’s crashing! Kill them before they kill us!
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!
Fear knows full well that as long as we’re sidetracked by URGENT, we’ll never get to IMPORTANT.
Important is long-term and strategic. Important is about mission and vision. Important makes smart decisions based on data.
Most politicians, most news coverage, our enemy–they strive for the slight-of-hand diversion toward urgent. They’re skilled at deflecting attention away from what really matters. The sound bites, the simplistic answers, they point us away from the difficult, foundational struggles.
Jesus is always about long-term, about mission, about important. He was tempted in the wilderness to fall for the enemy’s tricks and look away from God’s promises. He ignored the flashy promises and kept His eyes on what mattered.
That’s our task as well.
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Where is fear diverting your attention from important? Where is it distracting you from hope?
We’re doing our best to focus on a group of kids who’ve been rescued from the horrors of life in a brothel. These kids have hope and freedom because of the new life they found in a HOME OF HOPE.
We’re riding our bikes to support these kids as part of FRONT RANGE FREEDOM TOUR ’16. You can join us. Sound scary?
That’s just fear’s slight-of-hand trying to distract you. Don’t fall for it.