Dont be a booby: Spiritual Warfare

I hate that term: Spiritual Warfare. Its creepy. Its a dimension of spirituality that I have always shyed away from. I dont like the mysticism of it, or the looks you get when you talk about it. I dont like my faith to be illogical. I don't like my belief systems to get weakened by things others might see as far fetched. These are weaknesses admittedly. Because I do believe there is an enemy, and I do believe there is a war.

Before I tell you what I've been thinking about lately, let me tell you some of the reasons why I shy away from thinking about things in terms of demons and enemies. I think people suck. Thats one of my four main points of belief. People within themselves are capable of nasty nasty stuff. I dont think we necessarily need an enemy to completely ruin ourselves. I think a lot of what we do is the result of the fact that we suck. I think when you make stupid immoral choices, you are to blame. There is a large school of fish out there who blame the enemy for everything bad they do. So let me say here and now, that our bad choices and stupid mistakes are 100% ours. There's no such thing as "the devil made me do it" he tempts and you fall for it.

So here's what I think about who he is. After a little research and some help from a few books I have been reading lately, I think he is a crafty crafty bastard that knows an awful lot about us. So much about us that he uses that information to ensnare us in situations that will leave us trapped, ineffective, believing lies about ourselves, destroying everything in our lives that could bring us any shred of happiness and ultimately distancing us from God as much as possible.

The thing is, the war itself is already won. Our souls are safe in God's hands. The ultimate victory is completely God's. But I believe there is a second battle, one waged specifically for our lives here on Earth. One bent on making us as miserable as possible. Its like the battle for the universe was a game of checkers and when the devil lost the game, instead of accepting defeat and commending God, he is flipping the checkerboard and turning over the table and chairs. In short, on his way out of the picture, the devil is trying to ruin as much as he can.

This understanding leads me to believe what he says and does and convinces us of dont matter. God is in control. So we could reasonably go through our lives never thinking about him, just doing our best to love God and serve him with our broken feable minds and bodies.

That is definitely the way I have chosen to live much of my life. It was more pleasant and I never ran the risk of giving the enemy too much credit or looking like a looney toon to my non-believing friends.

Until now.

I was reading a book the other day that drew lines for me so clearly that when I closed the book, I had a startling realization.

There have been periods in my life where I willfully gave up trying to "be good." I called them all manner of "cool christian" catch phrases like I'm "no longer striving." or "I'm just being and resting in God's love and grace." or "I'm choosing to not be judgemental and choosing love instead." Let me just say, that those prinicples are great..and we should never strive for God's favor, nor should we be restless and worried about our shortcomings and we should love the hell out of people literally... But that is not what I was using those lines for. I was using them as a ticket to do whatever the hell I wanted to do. I put hell in there both times to help you draw the lines later.

Sin is an antiquated word. And it carries a lot of unnecessary connotations. Its the term that the uptight holy-roller character in the movies always uses to talk about rock music and alcohol. Sin is the word that stifles people wanting to have a good time. Insert illustration from your favorite sock-it-to-the-man revolution movie. Though sin is a very "uncool" word to use, unfortunately is the only one that works in my illustration.

My realization was that in choosing whatever the hell I wanted to do, I was choosing the hell I wanted. When tempted with things that sound fun and reckless I chose them because they felt great or seemed to fill a need that I was experiencing, and they always seemed to fill a want that I had. The thing that turned my heart to mush and my stomach sour was realizing that in need I was turning to the enemy to fullfill me. Choosing anything the Bible calls sin is choosing to turn to the enemy to fullfill our needs. Did that make your stomach hurt too?

As if committing spiritual treason weren't enough reason to run away screaming from temptation or sin...there's more yet. The Bible says the enemy seeks to kill and destroy. All of his instruments, his weapons, his tools, his ideas are booby traps. They're sucker nets. They're all ACME... Remember ACME products?? Coyote always bought them and thought HAHA! Surely this will help me snare the roadrunner!! And they always blew up in his face. They ALWAYS ended up destroying him. They ALWAYS ended up in failure. Sin ALWAYS ends in failure. Sin always ruins. Sin ALWAYS destroys. Sin NEVER provides. Sin NEVER builds up. Sin never heals, never comforts, never lasts.

One last illustration...this one is solid Biblical imagery. Feel free to hum the song while you read. There was a wise man, who built his house upon a rock (wise decisions and God's choices) when the rains came his house remained. Then there was a foolish man, who built his house on the sand (sin, lies and ACME products) for a while he had a better view but when the rains came everything he had was washed away.

I know that I know that I will continue this life in feeble weak attempts to follow God and make decisions that he wants me to. I know its just a matter of time before I'm on my face asking for forgiveness about something new I've gotten myself into...But I've realized I dont know HOW many times now that when I choose disobedience its always just a matter of time before the rains come and everything I have is washed away.

So I raise a bottle of diet coke...Here's to not being suckers! Here's to not being boobies! Here's to building our house on good decisions and God's design!

Cheers

Oh, and PS, a booby from the term booby-trap and booby-prize refers to a type of bird who didnt have the good sense to flee from danger. He was often approached and He was often killed as a result. I.e., dont be a booby.