" I see you, Devil. And I declare war."
A wrote this on my Facebook wall a few weeks ago. Not surprisingly, I've felt like a target has been on my back, so to speak, ever since.
You can't shine a spotlight on the undercover plans of the enemy and not expect them to come out swinging. And so he has. Bring it on. All it's really done is riled me up even more.
I'm seeing the goal: undermine an individual. destroy a marriage. bomb a family. forfeit a society. repeat.
Gotta start somewhere if you want to take the system down. Personally, I'm seeing the strategy where I live as taking out marriages. The devil feeds a bunch of lies to one spouse, who gulps them down, turns on the other spouse and bails. By taking out 1 person you effectively take out an entire family.
The consequences of those decisions then send a ripple effect for YEARS.
In a couple of generations of this you end up with a broken society with a bunch of hopeless, confused, angry, wounded people running around inflicting their own pain on everyone around them.
I'm aware that I'm seriously over simplifying here and I'm aware that both spouses have a share of blame in the demise of a marriage...but in general, this is what I see at work. And to set off the chain of dominoes you really only have to take out 1 person.
In the 8 years we've lived in Oroville I personally know of 24 divorces that have been filed. In a town of less than 2,000 people, 24 is a ridiculously high number for those more or less in my circle.
Now let me temporarily flash side-ways.
Have you heard of the Nashville Statement? It's an evangelical "manifesto" of marriage and gender identity. And it's blowing up social media. Of course there is a ton of backlash on anyone having the nerve to state that the Bible declares marriage to be between 1 man and 1 woman in lifetime covenant under God.
My point isn't to argue the 14 points of the manifesto, or whether or not it should have been named after a city in TN, or argue about how we should treat people who genuinely feel that were born in the wrong body or fight about if someone should be allowed to name their domestic partner in their insurance papers. I have varying opinions on these matters that could fill a blog another time.
My point is to state that the objective of the enemy is clear: If we can break down the family unit, we can destroy society.
And newsflash: it's working.
Without going into a lot of detail, I've been privy to some statistics recently concerning kids in my community and some of the details are alarming. I'm shocked at the number of kids saying they are depressed or full of anger they don't know how to direct. They find illicit substances in their own homes and have easy access to alcohol. Rarely is anyone policing these items especially if there is only 1 legal guardian in the home (and frequently that person is not a parent but another family member.)
Why would a child find themselves in need of medicating their depression and anger? Why would they need to numb low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness? Why would they turn to addictive substances if they felt loved and cared for at home? If their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs were being met? For a millions reasons, really, but there is NO WAY you can convince me that there isn't a connection between rising emotional and mental issues with kids and the increasing number of broken homes in our society.
I'm a firm believer in something called Generational blessing and cursing. There is a strong correlation between 1 generation experiencing things like addiction, divorce and teen pregnancy and the next generation following in it's footsteps. Often broken homes beget broken homes. Teen mothers have kids that also become teen mothers. And so I firmly believe that our society doesn't function within a bubble. The choices we individually make absolutely DO affect those around us. The Apostle Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthian church that when 1 part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers. This isn't just in reference to the Christian Body but is also a picture of human interaction. We do not live isolated lives.
And so when someone hurts and feels broken and makes broken choices, it 100% affects those around them. First and foremost, your marriage partner, your children, your immediate family, your extended family and then on to your neighbors and friends. Think of the last time you knew a friend was struggling with something...you felt their hurt, right? And when you see the consequences of someone's actions you feel those consequences yourself.
Why does it matter that I'm writing about this? Because the broken lives of friends around me...those 24 broken marriages... makes my heart hurt. The suffering they are experiencing is walking around in their spouse. In their children. In their church. In their workplace. The broken identity, the hopelessness, the anger, the entitlement, the pride...it rubs off on others and we wear the stains of each other on ourselves because we are bound together.
So yeah. It matters to me. It matters to me if you walk out on your marriage. It matters to me when your addiction makes your children feel like they have to compete for your attention. It matters to me when your identity is skewed by the devil's lies...an entire generation's morals is being re-written to accommodate your choices. It matters to me if you are imprisoned in depression, anger, greed, fear or hatred.
Why do we Christians talk about our faith and supposedly interfere in the lives of other people? The World says, "They should just mind their own business. They just want to make everyone exactly like them. They want to strip everyone of their rights and interrupt everyone's fun."
If there's a way out of your chains, don't you want to know about it? If there is a light at the end of the tunnel don't you want to be led there? If there are answers to the things you search for and are not finding do you want someone to tell you?
This is the Good News. That Jesus Saves. That faith in Him can CHANGE YOU. That we don't all have to be exactly the same but when we see another in bondage we should SAY SOMETHING.
World: I'm not always going to say what you want to hear. I can't always pat you on the back and tell you the path you're on is going to eventually make you happy. I can't always tell you it'll eventually be OK. Sometimes you gotta hear that you're wrong. That what you've been fed is a bunch of lies. That you're letting the enemy win.
I'm speaking my truth. #sorrynotsorry
No comments:
Post a Comment