Rope-a-Dope

We live in a world of cognitive distortion (relax-everything is going to be alright). No matter what happens, reports of political decadence, reports of spiritual improprieties, disasters of tornadoes, floods, drought, the usual retort "Let's just move on." This is perhaps best expressed in the popular 1988 tune, "Don't Worry, Be Happy". The Beatles said, "All you need is love." Sinatra sang, "I did it my way."

The time is long passed to realize that perception is not reality, we live in a real world with real problems.

It takes 30 glasses of water to neutralize the toxicity produced by one can of carbonated drink. You probably never recover from the poison of aspartame or other synthetic sweeteners, found in a diet drink. In the sophisticated world of statistics, when you can come out with proof regarding almost anything, logarithms have not yet been discovered that will give the sum of psychological affects on the human organism. There is no way to measure the pain-mental aguish involved in the death of a loved one. There is no way to measure the psychological trauma from abuse. After hateful words are spoken, accusations made, traumatic blows delivered, difficult to retrieve. If only this writer could recoup spiteful words he has spoken, damaging-judgmental attitude.

July 1, Saginaw, Michigan, a homeless man, well known to law enforcement, a mental cripple, was shot 46 times by police simply because this mentally deficient individual was threatening. The ratio was 6-1. Six armed police officers to one homeless-hapless man with a knife. Why did it take 46 bullets to bring down and kill this one unfortunate person...a man, although not like most of us, however made in the imagine of God? Same situation with Katherine Johnston in 2006, black woman in Atlanta, Georgia, in bed in her own home. Her house happened to be in a part of the city which had become infested with drug gangs. In a botched drug raid, mistaken house, her door was kicked down by the police. The 92 year old woman, a seasoned product of discrimination and everything else that had made her life miserable, at least had the good sense to have a weapon to defend herself. (Guaranteed by the second amendment of the Constitution) Not in uniform, undercover police, after she had fired one shot in their direction, fired 39 shots at this helpless, hapless, old, black woman. Are there words to describe? Could any measurement be taken of the terror which afflicts many in similar circumstances?

Just think of old people living in housing projects, gangland type killings, moral turpitude-decadence, up and down every street. Just think of children raised in a house of depravity, prostitution, addictions of every type, physical and mental abuse. This writer has talked at length with children raised in such cauldrons of sin and then they wonder why people can not accept them as normal, facing the normal challenges of life. Just think of children in the war torn areas of the world, not knowing from one day to the next if they will have the security of a parent or a home.

Somewhere, somehow, the human mind must find psychological escape from the traumas of life.

Many of us find escape, refuge (refuge is a high place in our faith). I have asked the question 1,000 times, "Where do people go for help who do not have faith in God?" My favorite Psalm is Psalm 84. This writer was at a low point in his life, about 40 years ago, on the island of Samoa in a small church, filled with natives, a woman missionary with a real high pitched voice, walked down the isle and said to me, "Welcome to our church, today I am speaking to these people from Psalm 84, 'Blessed [is] the man whose strength [is] in thee.'" It is not what a man does when everything goes well in life. Rather, it is what he does when he realizes the real source of his strength, when everything goes wrong. The word Lord is a very particular word throughout God's book. Even Caesar wanted to be called Lord. British noblemen liked to be called Lord. 250 times in the bible, God is referred to as Lord. Lord of host is very special. When God says something twice, pay attention. Psalm 46, two verses, 7 and 11, "The LORD of hosts [is] with us; the God of Jacob [is] our refuge." Remember, Jacob the grandson of the first Jew, Abraham. Jacob, psychological turmoil as most of us, cheater of his blind father and his twin brother, cheater of his wife's father Laban, wrestle with God all night (Eph 6). God changed his name to Israel, the Jewish nation bares his name until this day. God gave him the blessing of producing the 12 tribes of Israel. Such a failure, such redemption, at his death in Goshen-Egypt, age 147, largest and longest funeral procession the world has ever known. The Jews of Egypt, most of the Egyptian army, millions, traveling the hundreds of miles to bring his body back to Cana. Such is the faith we find throughout God's book, both Old Testament and New Testament.

Some people find escape from the psychology of everyday traumatic living in sports, music, hobbies. This week, Phyllis Diller died at age 95. She could still evoke laughter without using four letter words or suggestive sexual activity. As the great comedian, Red Skelton said, I have kept people laughing without using four letter words. There is nothing as good for the human psyche than laughter. My Aunt said, "The greatest therapy in the world is your grandmother's laugh." One of God's greatest miracles, amid the trauma-turmoil-trials of life, one can still smile, even laugh. In the rope-a-dope with which Satan traps us, Pagan practices "cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful" (Mark 4:19). We can still find a reason to smile, laugh, knowing contentment that God in his mercy has prepared better for us.