“But they won’t get away with this for long. Someday
everyone will recognize what fools they are, just as with Jannes and
Jambres.”—2 Timothy 3:9 (NLT)
“I think this is our exit,” she says. “If we don’t take this exit
now, we’ll be late to dinner.” She is annoyed by tardiness of any kind.
“I got this,” I tell her. “The next exit will work. I know an old
shortcut.” I hate being corrected. I like to be right. I turned up the
radio.
It turned out that the road had been completely rerouted and my old
shortcut didn’t exist anymore. We were completely lost, stuck in
bumper-to-bumper traffic, and there was nothing I could do about it. My
chance to make the smart choice has passed. My wife doesn’t say, “I told
you so.” She doesn’t have to.
Self-deception is the worst kind of deception. Not while you’re
actually going through it though. While you’re in the middle, believing
your lie, you’re fat, dumb, and happy. Ignorance is bliss, they say.
Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses with their lies. They were so caught
up in the buzz they created with their magic that they didn’t know how
close to the end their time had come. They were reading the wrong road
map and didn’t realize it. Plagues were coming. They were clueless about
the miraculous shock and awe that was coming from the Creator of the
Universe.
Often, when you’re lost, you don’t know you need to be found. You’re
not open to correction because that takes humility and admitting error.
My friend, these are things you have very little experience with.
Ignorance is bliss? Ignorance leads to further lost-ness.
We’re better off following the example of zealous young atheists. There
is an interesting plot-twist in so many atheists’ stories; C.S. Lewis is
one that comes to mind. In his zeal to prove the “falsity” of
Christianity, he thoroughly investigated the facts; he processed truth.
Truth brings the honest searcher to both the historic and metaphoric
foot of the cross where real decisions must be made. Men like C.S.
Lewis, and in our generation, Lee Strobel, embrace the One they set out
to disprove. The wonderful irony is they themselves became found.
We should make it a life-rule to never prove our own right-ness,
especially at the expense of the truth. If you don’t find a map and get
back on course, you will stay lost and you may find out after it’s too
late.
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