Peaceful Paranoia: Part III – Look/Look/Listen…

My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world…1 John 4:1

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Ever noticed that looking <both ways> just isn’t enough anymore?

Hyper-narrow and ultra-curvy roads are the norm in my neighbourhood. Because of this, I’ve been teaching my 3 and 4yr. old sons the fine art of crossing the street in one piece. I had to expand on the old look both ways method due to the numerous blind spots and speed racers dodging traffic through our front garden.

Even when both eyes perceive a clear street, the ears can easily spot a fast approaching motor hum (when asked their opinion). Knowing this, I have blatantly bombarded my son’s minds with a little proverb called, “Look, Look, Listen!”

This 3 step check is performed before any confident step across the road. After danger has passed, the process is repeated until all is clear, but no sighs of safety are allowed until both feet have crossed to the opposite curb. Does this sound a bit melodramatic or even fear-mongering?

Let me assure you, I teach them as someone who has been hit by cars as both a pedestrian and cyclist. Not fun. I have no shame showing my kids the everyday realities of life, death and lawsuits. This world is not a Disney scripted fairy-tale and I won’t be there when they cross the street later in life, but hopefully, “Look, Look, Listen” will be present at all kinds of crossroads during their stroll through the earth.

Everyday we put an autopilot trust in numerous things without even knowing it. The strength of the chairs we sit on, the sobriety of our bus drivers, the ‘objective’ news casts we listen to, etc. Whenever there is a comforting sense of familiarity, we tend to let our guard down. I see people on a daily basis crossing very crowded streets with  earphones turned up and heads turned down—-texting! It’s a perfect picture of sleepwalking spirituality: where a fictional sense of security is just asking to be shaken awake or put to rest permanently.

Our culture seems to swallow everything we’re sold, “no questions asked”, as long as the commercial made us giggle. Whether you’ve notice or not, we are being increasingly exposed to blatant esoteric symbols and mantras throughout every form of media. It’s nothing new really, but the more cozy we get with the idea of kid witches and teenage vampires, the easier it is to plant much darker things into our open minds and hearts.

Witches and werewolves don’t really scare me, but pop stars with cult-like followings never cease to make me nervous. We will soon be blindsided by a world that will totally reject the reality of Jesus completely. But if we can stay awake, we won’t be fooled by the countless counterfeits on offer along the way.

Jesus knew we’d eventually live in a post-modern plastic Babylon where the new idols would be  ideals; the self-centric, people pleasing hymns that make the masses smile in unison with their comforting and truthfulish inoffensiveness.

If religion is the opiate of the masses, then P.C. is the crack cocaine.

People high on this stuff sound like they’ve seeeen the promise land! They’ve beeeen to the mountain tops of a moral high ground where all those below are merely ignorant and intolerant. But even in all this confusion, there is real and peace-filled freedom: a fearless awareness the comes when we examine all roads (choices) carefully and listen to what the living God has to say about the on coming traffic.

It’s doom to assume this world is looking out for our best interests. Yes, there are many good things to be grateful for and many people worth trusting. But with whom and what are you assuming your security lies with these days? A president’s (or preacher’s) confident smile? Predictions of better financial horizons to come? How about that comforting feeling that an aisle full of familiar products* can produce?

We are all just little kids crossing a very dangerous street, no matter how safe the neighbourhood seems.

The Triple L training with my kid’s has advanced to the stage where I let them choose when it is safe to step in the street (while holding their hand of course). We are all given this very same freedom every single day. Whether or not we hold Dad’s hand is up to us.

Sincerely?

Blind Bat and Deer Ears Munoz

www.freedomhouse.org.uk http://mondaymessage.tumblr.com/

*This sensation is rarley ever noticed (or admitted to). Until you are in a foreign land and see a Starbucks, Mc Donald’s or can of Coke somewhere. Retail therapy anyone?