[PICTURE WOULD BE HERE IF BLOGGERS
ENGINEERS HAD FIXED IT BY NOW]
This story was written by me. One day I was thinking about how we go through life believing little suggestive voices all day long. They usually have done a great job of convincing us of how little we mean to one another and mostly to God. I wrote this story to combat those lies. It does not have much to do with sharing Alaska, but it does share what this Alaskan thinks about. I hope you enjoy it but mostly I hope it makes you aware of these types of lies.
Lies
Written by C.M.VanWingerden
It was midday, the sun was bright, the clouds were fluffy and light with a gentle breeze. It was a perfect day to be outdoors so I decided to walk in the park. While I strolled I saw a friend. I had not seen him for so long. I hurried over to greet him.
He sat on the park bench with his shoulders stooped. He appeared to be carrying a heavy burden on his back and was oblivious to the beauty around him. I could hear talking. It appeared that he was involved in a lively conversation.
I heard him reply, "I know, I know, I have nothing to offer people or even my family."
"Yes, I am just a loser."
I looked around the park for anyone that he could be talking to and when I didn’t see anyone I looked for a cell phone. I knew he had been talking to someone, but to whom?
For a second his eyes brightened as he looked up and saw me approaching. I leaned down and gave him a hug, "How are you doing? It's been so long since I've seen you! What have you been up to?"
His eyes darkened even while I spoke then he turned away. He nodded and looked up at me angrily, "I am doing fine!"
I didn’t know why he was upset but I smiled and asked him again, "Good, so what have you been up to?"
"If you cared you would try to see me more often", he replied, "You know where I live!"
I could see and feel hatred as he glared up at me.
I backed up as I felt the anger in my own heart begin to take control. I thought to myself, "Who do you think you are anyway? What makes you think you can talk to me that way?"
Then suddenly and unexplainably for a short time, I was allowed to see the spirit world that occupied space around both us. Each evil spirit scrambled over each other as they worked to jumble up his very tired mind with so many accusations that I could see he had chosen to believe. I jumped when an evil one sprang over to me, whispered with a sneer, "He is a loser." "You should not even talk to him!" "Who does he think he is?"
I recoiled in disgust.
I watched as they shouted into his ears words that he listened to, accepted, and then repeated to me as he heard them.
They said, "She does not like you!" He said, "You do not like me!"
They said, "Look at her, she despises you." He said, "Look at you, you despise me!"
They said, "If she liked you she would come to see you more often!" He said, "If you liked me you would come to see me more often!"
They said, "Why would anyone love you? You're a loser!" He said, "Why would you or anyone love me? I'm a loser!"
They said, "She’ll never hang out with a drunk like you!"
He stopped talking and held his tongue with bitterness in his eyes as he sat there looking up at me. He kept this accusation to himself not wanting to believe that he was a drunkard for fear that if he did he would truely become one. The lies raged on.
He turned away and fought back the tears as he grieved for what seemed to be the truth about himself and then he continued to believe the lies.
"I am a drunkard."
"Yes, she does not want to hang out with drunkards."
His heart wrenched with pain from believing so many lies for so many years. He leaned down to cover his face with his hands.
The evil spirits squealed and danced around in wicked delight. I hurried to his side; put my hand on his shoulder while shaking my head. I tried to tell him, "No, none of that is true!"
He shoved my hand away and continued to listen, but I could plainly see that he was not listening to me.
Their words rang shrill and pierced through the air. I shuttered as I watched their evil, hateful control over his thoughts grow even more.
You are a loser!
She could never love someone like you!
You don’t really need her or anyone anyway!
Remember what you did last week? Nobody would ever understand!
You are a weak person; you could never give up alcohol.
Some people just don’t have what it takes to make it in this world, you are one of them.
Look at her; she’s thinking you are so pitiful.
You might as well stop by the store for the only thing that works for you, alcohol!
You should just end this crazy life, kill yourself!
No one would notice you were gone anyway...
I tried to explain to him that I could see what was going on. He would not listen to me. He chose to listen to them. His blindness to their tactics and to the hatred they poured into his life everyday only grew worse as he sat there believing lies. He allowed them to control his mind with their evil words.
That was the day my spiritual eyes were opened to my own acceptance of all the lies spewed into my mind. I too have listened and believed them throughout my life. Sadly, the acceptance of those lies has continued for years. I tell you now so that you can be made aware of why you may have hatred, bitterness, lust, jealousy, envy, self-pity, anger, or any other hateful feelings in your own life. Those feelings will lead us on to destruction if we continue to live our lives believing lies.
Each evil spirit comes to us full of hatred. They plan to destroy us in whatever way they can.
They will use:
Alcohol/Drugs
Pride
Music
Sex
Wealth/ Materialism
Popularity
Lies
Flattery
Religion
Work/Busyness
It does not matter what it is, they use whatever we allow them to use. It will be used to wreck our homes, our families, our friendships, but mostly our communion with God. They'll even use good things. If it takes our minds away from worshiping Jesus Christ, they will use it.
Lift up your hands and rejoice! There is hope for us! We have the power given to us through Jesus Christ’s victory over Death and Sin. That power is given to us to overcome those evil strongholds working in our minds and hearts; we just need to turn to Jesus Christ for help.
He listens to us everyday, patiently waiting for us to call out to Him.
Help me, Abba Father.
The evil will scatter with just the mention of His name.
"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV)
We spent some time at Kincaid Park on Sunday. Specifically, the Jodhpur Track at the West end of Diamond Blvd. It was my first time there. We were there to join Kim and the family watch Alexis race her souped up 4-wheeler for the first time! She is in this picture and is # 88.
When my daughter called and asked if I would sponsor Alexis in Motorcross racing I had major mixed feelings!
Alexis races in the Mini Quad division. She has a 90cc 4 wheeler which is the same bike that we have watched her ride for a year already. The last time was up in Belanger Pass and she handles the bike really well and carefully too. The biggest problem she encountered over and over was it kept getting clogged up somehow from going too slow. Besides that bike was not made to be taken to all the places we have gone with her riding. Clear to the tops of mountains and deep in the soggy bogs!
