This post is part of the October 2018 Edition of 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes. I hope you”ll join me in seeing where each prompt takes us.
P.S. Just so you know, I’m finding it difficult to stick to five minutes (**) and it may take me longer than the 31 days to finish all the prompts. Not easy for this rule follower!
You can read more 31 Days entries at http://www.fiveminutefriday.com
Believe
“For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God” 1 John 5:4-5 (NLT) / Pixabay
My mouth watered as sugary sweetness mixed with greasy goodness wafted on the breeze. Stepping in time with a symphony of calliope music, loud voices, and laughter we took our final walk down the Midway. The weight of my last quarter felt heavy as I clenched it tightly in the sweaty palm of my small hand. How would I ever decide what to spend it on as our day at the fair came to a close? Choices bounced around in my head just like the balls being hurled at bottles in the stands we were passing as we made our way to the exit.
My eyes darted this way and that searching for the perfect ending to a perfect day. And then I saw it! The brightly lit sign promising a sight never seen before. A sight you surly didn’t want to miss. The Amazing! The Unusual! The One and Only…….Three Eyed Bull! The adults tried to dissuade me. Not one other quarter carrying kid would go with me, but l could not be deterred. Loosening the grip on my last coin, I walked determinedly to the opening of the small barn. Having exchanged my money for a ticket, I stepped into the dark, cool room and there, right in front of me was…….
The rear! Hindquarters! The WRONG end!!!! Once my eyes adjusted to the ill-lit area, I discovered that the cow’s head was tightly tied to a corner. No matter where I stood or how hard I looked, instead of the “Amazing and Unusual” I saw “One and Only” one eye of the three promised. Walking away, hands in my pockets**and head hanging as low as my spirit felt, that was the moment I think I first realized that the world can’t always be believed.
Many years have passed since my little girl, trusting heart felt the impact of that hard lesson and I’m afraid there’ve been many more eye opening moments just like it since then. There is much in our world today that we cannot believe! We put our picture-perfect moments on social media alluding to those who see, that we have it all together (when we really don’t). Advertising has become a study in stretching the truth and with the world wide web, reading or listening to the news requires us to have investigative skills of our own to try and uncover what is accurate and what is not. It can feel like the truth is tied up tight in the corner and we’re only able to see what others want us to see! What are we truth-seekers to do?
“But you belong to God my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.” 1 John 4:4-6 (NLT)
“The Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception”: the weight of of it lies in the palm of Jesus’ hand. His going to the cross for you and me made it possible for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is that very Spirit who helps us when we find ourselves on the “wrong end” of the truth.
Just as I so long ago set my mind on seeing something I thought to be true, we cannot let others deter us from discerning through God’s truth what we see, hear, and yes, even what we say ourselves. Bright lights, exciting words, dim lighting, and all the tricks of the world are used to lure us to blindly trust. It is when we hold tightly to the Spirit of truth that we begin to finally see beyond appearance, reject hearsay, and are able to emerge from the darkness of the world and lift our heads to the light of the One and Only in Whom we can truly believe.
