These are challenging times, to say the very least. Daily we are bombarded by disease, political upheaval, hatred, arrogance, and righteous deception. Righteous deception?
I have friends at extreme ends of these spectrums. These are well-intentioned, God fearing, and scripture-believing people of faith. The strange thing is that none of them is seemingly susceptible to deception. Of this, they are convinced: vehemently so.
I will not pretend to point out which ends of these spectrums are in error. I will not defend positions that are somewhere in the middle. Instead, I have one simple message: none of us will ever know in the moment that we are deceived. If you argue you are absolutely, without any doubt, correct and are not deceived, then you do not understand deception. I can at least state that you are deceived about deception.
Deception is the strangest of all disfunctions. While others happen knowingly and willfully, deception is unique. We will never know in the present if we are deceived. We will only know in retrospect if we were or were not deceived. That is the nature of deception.
There is a good reason we lean toward deception. Our existence is limited in perspective. Not only do we see dimly through the “veil,” but the views are flat views of expanded entities. It is very much like arguing which perspective of the architect’s drawings is the correct one! For more on this subject, the book Slices of God illustrates very simply how it is possible to hold contradictory positions on such issues, be correct, but also be in error due to our limited perspectives.
The message is simple . . .
I do not know everything (I am finite).
Since there are deficits in my knowledge bank, I am most likely deceived.
Arrogance is evidence of deception.
Humility is the only antidote.
For the past 20 years one of my daily prayers has been, “Show me today the lies I hold dearly.” I pray this for you. I pray it for the world.
– Sam Augsburger
