{"id":1466,"date":"2015-02-06T13:55:36","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T21:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2015-02-06T13:55:36","modified_gmt":"2015-02-06T21:55:36","slug":"does-it-bother-you-that-people-lie-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2015\/02\/does-it-bother-you-that-people-lie-to-us.html","title":{"rendered":"Does It Bother You, That People Lie to Us?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?”<\/em>\u00a0(Habakkuk 1:3)<\/p>\n

For many years, like many people, I was contentedly asleep, focusing the majority of my time on minor, day to day things, allowing\u00a0those things\u00a0to swallow up\u00a0an inordinate proportion of\u00a0my thoughts: I\u00a0accepted\u00a0without question everything I saw on the news, thereby\u00a0finding\u00a0myself in a constant state of\u00a0overwhelmed\u00a0anxiety; I\u00a0nursed\u00a0grudges over trivial offenses; I attended church and participated in extra-curricular activities like mid-week children’s groups and worship team practice, convinced that the more time I spent doing “Christian” activities, the more of a Christian I actually was.<\/p>\n

\"Lady<\/a>
When we wait for someone, we want to make sure that they are trustworthy enough to fulfill their words. Truth, always, involves God. Lady in Waiting, original oil painting by Steve Henderson; licensed prints at Amazon, Framed Canvas Art, and iCanvas.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cocooned within my insular world, I was able to transform minor issues into major ones, and the limited time I spent with God was generally devoted to informing Him about money concerns and observations\u00a0on\u00a0the personal foibles of others who threatened to make my comfortable existence uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

And while I was concerned about the pain and hurt of\u00a0the millions of others on this planet\u00a0— most notably those who don’t get enough to eat every day — there was so little I could do about it other than write a check, that I simply didn’t know what to pray. So I didn’t.<\/p>\n

But God adroitly and skillfully uses circumstances to awaken His children, and when acute emotional pain drove me to the realization that I had no control over my life, but One Person did, I\u00a0had no time for\u00a0minor things that had become major.\u00a0My thoughts turned\u00a0increasingly on the goodness of God, in comparison to the evil of man that abounds and flourishes in a world of powerful people who, like the grave, cannot get enough:<\/p>\n

“Like death he is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.”<\/em>\u00a0(Habakkuk 2:5)<\/p>\n

Global Pain<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In the midst of dealing with anguish on a personal level, I found my eyes opened to anguish on a global level, instituted and nourished by\u00a0financial and political magnates\u00a0— whether they are on horseback with sabers or in leather chairs behind desks crafted from\u00a0hardwood unsustainably logged\u00a0from the Amazon \u00a0rainforest\u00a0— whose central goal is to subjugate the majority of the human race.\u00a0In every generation\u00a0there\u00a0are a few\u00a0convinced that they deserve\u00a0more, and better, by taking from\u00a0those\u00a0who simply want enough.<\/p>\n

And I began to identify, first in one area and then in another, the lies I was being told.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t really matter where one starts — once you discover that you\u00a0are being\u00a0lied to, in one area, then you awaken to the fact that the lies don’t stop there. If they come out of the mouth of a man, their verity is questionable.<\/p>\n

Let’s take politics, for example, an area in which we expect to be lied to, all the time, and yet, come every election, we listen to each candidate and vote based upon their words, as if we expected those words to be true.<\/p>\n

“Read my lips — no new taxes.”<\/p>\n

Remember that one?<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Our food matters, and it matters that it is as safe as we are told that it is. The Fruit Vendor, original oil painting by Steve Henderson, sold.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It doesn’t really matter that George H. Bush said it first,\u00a0in just those terms written into his speech by his speechwriter\u00a0—\u00a0all political leaders\u00a0make similar promises, which we generously forgive them for not keeping (“Bipartisan politics — it’s really difficult!”) The point is —\u00a0abortion is not safe or rare, although it continues to be legal, and profitable for those who specialize in doing it;\u00a0the unemployment rate is far higher than the actual number stated;\u00a0bullying is alive and well in bully-free school and work zones; gas prices are not driven by free economics; \u00a0consumers are not informed which of their foods are genetically modified, nor do they have any say about the practice in the first place; and\u00a0first-world nations\u00a0are at war all around the world whether or not\u00a0they\u00a0declare the involvement to be an occupation or “peace-keeping” measure. Words do not match actions —<\/p>\n

“The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.”<\/em>\u00a0(1:4)<\/p>\n

For those still asleep, it’s easy to discount any criticism of current events as alarmism, or, the most severe criticism that can be levied — conspiracy theory. But when you awake to the fact that something you have been told is not true, and yet was told to you so that you would behave a certain way, or accept a particular proposal, or buy a product, then you have to ask yourself,<\/p>\n

“Why do I keep acting as if what this person, or this organization, or this government, or this celebrity, or this religious figurehead, says is true?”<\/p>\n

And once you ask yourself that, and realize how much is going on that you can’t do anything about, you ask, like Habakkuk 2,600 years ago,<\/p>\n

“Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?”<\/em><\/p>\n

or in other words, “What am I supposed to do about it? And why don’t You do something?”<\/p>\n

Regarding what God does about injustice, let’s jump to Malachi 4:1 in which He promises,<\/p>\n

“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

And as for us?<\/p>\n

We wake up. We\u00a0acknowledge\u00a0the evil and are no longer fooled by the lies. And we look to one source, and one source only, for the truth.<\/p>\n

By the simple expedient of simply stopping believing everything we are told, and questioning every statement we are given, we would wake up.<\/p>\n

And awake is precisely what Evil wants us not to be.<\/p>\n

Thank You<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you for joining me at Commonsense Christianity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?”\u00a0(Habakkuk 1:3) For many years, like many people, I was contentedly asleep, focusing the majority of my time on minor, day to day things, allowing\u00a0those things\u00a0to swallow up\u00a0an inordinate proportion of\u00a0my thoughts: I\u00a0accepted\u00a0without question everything I saw on the news, thereby\u00a0finding\u00a0myself in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":561,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,88,5,1026,13,2,10,11,58,3,15,191,7,1450,4,8,1],"tags":[1453,1080,19,103,72,305,268,681,1452,713,26,1451,110,466,423,249,256,328,253,1089,1278,76],"class_list":["post-1466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-bible","category-christianity","category-church-2","category-encouragement","category-faith","category-family","category-home","category-hope-2","category-inspiration","category-lifestyle","category-money-2","category-personal-growth","category-politics","category-prayer","category-spiritual-growth","category-uncategorized","tag-asleep","tag-awake","tag-christian","tag-christianity-2","tag-church","tag-commonsense","tag-conspiracy","tag-evil","tag-george-h-bush","tag-global","tag-god","tag-habakkuk-13","tag-leader","tag-lie","tag-man","tag-pain","tag-politics","tag-religious","tag-spiritual","tag-war","tag-wicked","tag-worship"],"yoast_head":"\nDoes It Bother You, That People Lie to Us? - Commonsense Christianity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does It Bother You, That People Lie to Us? - Commonsense Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?”\u00a0(Habakkuk 1:3) For many years, like many people, I was contentedly asleep, focusing the majority of my time on minor, day to day things, allowing\u00a0those things\u00a0to swallow up\u00a0an inordinate proportion of\u00a0my thoughts: I\u00a0accepted\u00a0without question everything I saw on the news, thereby\u00a0finding\u00a0myself in a…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2015\/02\/does-it-bother-you-that-people-lie-to-us.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commonsense Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-06T21:55:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/files\/2015\/02\/A_LadyInWaiting_watermark_small_SteveHenderson-300x235.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carolyn Henderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Does It Bother You, That People Lie to Us? - Commonsense Christianity","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Does It Bother You, That People Lie to Us? - Commonsense Christianity","og_description":"“Why do you make me look at injustice? 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