Reminders for Your Spiritual Journey

Scams are so pervasive that Americans will lose over $10 billion this year in fraudulent schemes.  Major newspapers have printed many articles about protecting yourself from common scams.  Typical safeguards include watching out for fake charities, double-checking websites since deceptive links can be just a few characters different than the real one, don’t answer unsolicited emails or texts, and be skeptical of product reviews & testimonials.  The most repeated warning is the one we all know well. If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.  For that very reason, many people think the Gospel is a scam.  We need to be prepared to dispel that myth and help others understand the difference between a scam and a truth they can believe.

Scammers often use a fraudulent or deceptive scheme intended to deprive someone of their money or property, sometimes involving misrepresentation or trickery.  While not all scams necessarily meet the legal definition of fraud, they can still lead to civil or criminal liability depending on the circumstances.  Some of the characteristics of a Scam are that they often rely on deception, trickery, or misrepresentation to lure victims.  The perpetrator of a scam usually aims to gain something of value, usually money or property, at the expense of the victim.  Many scams involve gaining the victim's trust before attempting to defraud them. 

One of my friends from my former church, who was a middle-aged widow, was lured in by a romance scammer who used someone else’s picture and profile on an internet dating site to lure her into not only giving him her heart, but her bank account as well.  She lost her home and the trust of her family and friends who were trying to warn her.  She was so convinced that the man in the picture was the man who said he loved her, that she was incapable of believing the evidence that her family and friends put before her that he had been an impostor all along.

We all need to be skeptical and hyper vigilant, to prevent falling prey to all kinds of scams.  The problem is that we also need to know when and what to believe.  The first step is to trust the people in our lives who present us with evidence of what Jesus’ life and His death on the cross has done for us.  Those of us who know the truth need to be ready to present that evidence, by letting others know what the knowledge and experience of salvation means for us. We need to be able to convince the skeptics that God’s grace is real and can be trusted to provide us with the promise of salvation that gives is the assurance we need to live a life of security in eternal life. 

While we want people to be skeptical enough to avoid scams, we also need to convince them that what Jesus did, through His life on earth and His sacrifice on the cross, isn’t too good to be true. It is just so good because it is so true!  Jesus Himself said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life.  He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." John 5:24. The Bible teaches that assurance of salvation comes from trusting in Jesus Christ, receiving His gift of salvation through faith, and experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit in one's life.  While a level of skepticism is good, believers can find confidence in God's promises and the evidence of His work in their lives. 

Sometime in the early 1970s, I became aware that I had no credit rating since, at that time, all credit assessments were based on the husband’s income and credit history.  This did not seem right to me because it meant that should something happen to my husband, or if we were to be divorced, I could not borrow money or buy things on credit.  By that time, I was working as a teacher and I had my own money, in a bank account in my own name.  I had taken out a credit card in my own name as well.  I was contemplating investing some money I had inherited and to do so in my own name.  I consulted an insurance agent, who billed himself as a financial advisor.  He asked me to fill out a risk assessment survey to help him assess my level of risk tolerance.  We discussed what my long-term goal was for the money I wanted to invest, and I told him I wanted to invest in a high-yield money market account.  However, when he sent me the papers to sign, they revealed that he was actually intending to invest my money in bonds, not the money market account I had requested.  That indicated to me that he had not used my risk assessment form in which I had indicated a high-level of risk tolerance, but had made a different calculation and determined that I should “play it safe”.  I did not accept his decision.  My husband contacted a different agent with the same company, and filled out the form using exactly the same information and risk factors I had used.  The only difference was that he identified himself as a male.  That agent used the same information, but when the paper work came, he had set up an investment in the very money market account I had requested.  While I understood the reasoning based on the odds that many women dropped out of the workforce, at that time to raise a family, I had waited until my children were in junior high and high school to go back to work and was in it for the long haul.  We changed insurance companies, and I invested my money elsewhere.

While it is prudent to know our risk tolerance, in order to avoid making mistakes, we also need to know what that tolerance is based on and how secure we feel in the risks we are willing to take.  We need to recognize the need to step out of our comfort zones when the rewards are worth the risk.  Too often we let fear stand in the way of acting boldly and creatively in how we conduct our lives.  As Rick Warren is quoted as saying: “Fear is a self-imposed prison keeping us from becoming the person God intended us to be.”  This does not mean that we should always throw caution to the wind and leap before we do our due diligence in assessing each situation, but it does mean that when boldness is called for and we have determined that we should move forward with steps we know are the right things to do, that we do not let our fears and hesitations trap us into inaction.  Courage is not the absence of fear, it is knowing that we can overcome our fears with God’s help and the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

First, we need to pray that the actions we are contemplating are in accordance to God’s will, that He is with us, and that we can do the fearsome thing.  It is called replacing fear with faith. Isaiah 41:10 says: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you and help you.” Philippians 4:6 says: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God… will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” and 1^st John 4:18 says: “There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear.”  These verses tell us that we can choose to believe in God’s promises and trust in His plans, even when facing uncertainty.  They reassure us that we can choose to make a conscious decision to live by faith, applying God's Word to our daily lives and refuse to let fear control us. 

A paradox is a statement or situation that seems contradictory or absurd, but when examined more closely, reveals a hidden truth or insightful perspective.  A real-life example is the paradox of choice, where having more choices can lead to feeling more overwhelmed and less satisfied than having fewer choices.  It is the concept of “less is more” in which we realized that having too much of a good thing can be bad, and that narrowing down choices makes it easier to choose. 

Some examples of paradoxical statements include the following: “Youth is wasted on the young.  The only constant is change.  You have to spend money to make money.  The only rule is that there are no rules.  And the more you know, the more you know you don't know.”  Life is full of paradoxes in which we must accept the fact that two opposing ideas can both be true at the same time.  Paradoxes are not always contradictions but can be statements or situations that challenge our assumptions and can lead to a deeper understanding of complex concepts and phenomena. 

There are several paradoxes in Christian theology, and we accept them by realizing that God knows everything and fully understands reality, though we do not.  The love paradox is one that is hard for some people to understand.  That is, that love is not always as sweet and comforting as we might like to think.  Sometimes, if we love someone, we have to also be honest and let them know when they are not doing the right things.  For example, a parent might need to apply what we call “tough love” to help children learn that they cannot always do exactly as they would like, when what they want to do, if it might be dangerous or otherwise harmful to themselves or others.  We ourselves, have to recognize that our heavenly father also teaches us that he knows best and though we might not fully understand why, there are things we need to learn from the things that do not go as we would like them to.

Isaiah 55:8-9 says: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.  "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways.”  The verse encourages believers to trust in God's wisdom and to recognize that His ways, though often mysterious, are ultimately for the best.  The Bible often emphasizes that God's power is most evident in human weakness.  2 Corinthians 12:9 states: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  This challenges the worldly notion that strength lies in self-reliance and highlights dependence on God as a source of true power. 

Jesus taught that those who seek to save their lives will lose them, while those who lose their lives for His sake will find them in Matthew 10:39.   This paradoxical statement highlights the idea that self-sacrifice and selfless service can lead to spiritual gain and eternal life.  Matthew 23:12 empathizes that those who humble themselves will be exalted, while those who exalt themselves will be humbled.  True greatness is found in a humble and contrite spirit.  The ultimate paradox is that we must completely surrender in order to be truly free––free to live without fear because we know that God is with us, and that though we will all parish from this earth, we will live forever because Jesus died in our place.  God’s greatest paradoxical gift of love was the cruelty of allowing Jesus to suffer and die on the cross in order that we might be saved.  Love like that is beyond our human capacity to fully understand, yet it is the very paradox we are asked to believe, in order to partake in God’s gift of salvation.  Praise be to God for His unspeakable grace!