Just a Sitting Duck

There are two passages I noted from John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart that struck me.

1. “What is this enemy that the Scripture calls “the world”? Is it drinking and dancing and smoking? Is It going to the movies or playing cards? That is a shallow and ridiculous approach to holiness. It numbs us to the fact that good and evil are much more serious. The Scriptures never prohibit drinking alcohol, only drunkenness; dancing was a vital part of King David’s life; while there are some very godly movies out there, there are also some very ungodly churches. No, “the world” is not a place or a set of behaviors–it is any system built by our collective sin, all our false selves coming together to reward and destroy each other. Take all those posers out here, put them together in an office or a club or a church, and what you get is what the Scriptures mean by “the world.”

This first passage indicates that the world isn’t a list of “no’s” (things we should stay away from), but according to Scripture, it’s more of a deceptive mindset taken on by human beings and seems to culminate in the public arena...think churches, office buildings, clubs, etc.

Meaning? Unless we allow God to remove our masks and step into the whole person He originally created us to be, we’ll be just like these imposters with their dirty hearts–the same type that turned on Jesus and crucified Him.

And what’s more? We all have that imposter lurking deep in our hearts somewhere. As Jesus said, no one is good but God (obviously making the point that He and the Father are one).

So, confession and repentance and constantly renewing our minds lead us away from worldly thinking, giving us the opportunity to truly commune with our Lord.

1. “If you read the saints from every age before the Modern Era–that pride-filled age of reason, science, and technology we all were thoroughly educated in –you’ll find that they take the devil very seriously indeed. As Paul said, “we are not unaware of his schemes” (2 Cor. 2:11). But we, the enlightened, have a much more common-sense approach to things. We look for a psychological or physical or even political explanation for every trouble we meet...There is a whole lot more going on behind the scenes of our lives than most of us have been led to believe.”

The second passage touches on the Modern Era and how our thinking as a society swiftly switched from being aware of the devil’s schemes to believing heaven and hell are foolish things and that there’s a more reasonable psychological or physical or political explanation for the evil of this world.

We are much more enlightened than our ancestors, are we not?

And yet?

We have higher depression and suicidal rates than ever, terrorism attacks, families turning on each other, etc.

So, who really are the enlightened ones?

Maybe the fact that we don’t acknowledge Satan even exists makes it even easier for us to be vulnerable to his attacks.

If you don’t know your enemy, then you, my friend, are just a sitting duck.

Like Scripture says, we have to remain ready in the armor of God at all times to protect ourselves from Satan.

For those of us who refuse? We become nothing more than bags of meat for the prowling lion.