Seeds of Confusion

Freedom is obtained when we find our way out of the chains that bind us and restrict our understanding of reality. Below are 12 significant chains that I have been bound by, and that I see restricting others. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but rather a starting point for awareness building. Money The 90’s band The Verve said it best in their hit song “Bittersweet Symphony”: “It's a bittersweet symphony, this life. Try to make ends meet You're a slave to the money Then you die.” Enough said for now. “Success”/Hard Work/Busyness For many in Western culture, this is THE chain that binds (in conjunction with “money.”) How many spend most of the days of their adult lives putting on uncomfortable clothes, fighting traffic, and slaving away for 8-12 hours at a job they don’t enjoy and resent? Once this chain in broken, the flow of freedom accelerates. Physical Insecurity The world can certainly be a dangerous place. But anxiety ove...

Have you ever been part of a church where the actual power structure was different than the stated power structure? This happened in a church I served early in my career. In accordance with Presbyterian polity, we elected a Session of nine elders and a board of six deacons. On paper, the church was governed by these officers. In reality, however, decisions were always made by one of two people. If the matter was related to finances or property, whatever “Mr. Taylor” said was the way the Session would vote. He would make his feelings known in Sunday school, and the current elders never voted against his wishes. “Mrs. Dorothy” lived in the local nursing home, and she would send her directives on all other church matters through her brother, who served on the Session. Mrs. Dorothy had been the matriarch of the church for several decades, a role she had inherited from her aunt - one of the church’s charter members.  To an outsider, this discrepancy in actual vs. stated...

When was the last time you preached or heard a sermon about demons? Demons are not something modern, educated, mainline Christians talk much about, even though they are prominent throughout the New Testament. We tend to write off the concept as superstitious and scientifically ignorant. This dismissal happens because we don’t understand what “demon” or “demonic” really means. Typically, we use it to indicate a sort of evil magic, or a creature who serves the devil. Historical usage, however, is much broader. The notion of demons exists as far back as ancient Egypt, and spans over many civilizations and historical eras. They all relate to some sort of outside entity that overcomes, inhabits, or affects humans - but the nature of that entity ranges from “evil” to “lesser” to “genius” to “divine.”  In other words, demonic is not a function of the Christian concept of Satan, as I have often assumed in the past. It has a much deeper meaning, one that has to do with the ...

Wild Things is a movie that careens through a mind-boggling series of plot twists and character surprises.  The film starts simply enough, depicting the arrest and trial of a young male high school teacher who gets accused of rape by the teenage daughter of a wealthy local businessman. In the courtroom, however, the riveting plot twists begin. We learn that the teenage girl concocted a false accusation, because she has been secretly in love with him and is jealous over the teacher’s relationship with a former student from the wrong side of town.   Soon, however, we learn that all three of these characters are in cahoots, and they have agreed to split the money from a lawsuit that the teacher files against the girl’s father for having his career ruined.  And that’s only the beginning of the deceptions and the surprises. By the end of the film, we learn that former student (who has an IQ over 200) has engineered this entire scheme, which also involves a loc...