deceived

by

Deceived By Green Grass And Mild Temperatures

We can perceive things wrongly and be deceived, so that we make assumptions on what something looks like. 

deceived by green grass and mild temperatures

Shadows in the middle of the night cause objects to look different, bigger, scarier than they really are.

The weather here has been a little like that. For the most part, the weather has just not seemed to match the season … but we know that can happen anywhere, any time. 

When my daughter, Karlie, lived in Calgary she said one year they had either snow or hail in every month of that year. 

I remember one Canada Day in Kingston that was very uncharacteristic of that time of year. There were all kinds of family friendly things to do downtown by the water, so we decided to check them out. We had planned to stay downtown for the afternoon and enjoy the bands and fireworks at night.

When we parked our car the temperature was about 25 degrees celsius. We were all dressed in shorts and T-shirts. But some weird cold front came screaming into the region and in a matter of hours – maybe four hours or so – the temperature dropped by 20 degrees. 

By the time the bands were playing and we were finding a spot to watch the fireworks, it was about 2 degrees. 

We had come prepared for the temperature to drop a few degrees, but not that low. We needed winter parkas! On July 1st it’s supposed to be warm. We are not supposed to be huddled together trying to keep the kids from getting hypothermia.

Right now in Kingston we are in the middle of winter, but until this week it didn’t seem like it. 

On Sunday we had green grass showing on our lawn. Sure, we had tiny snow piles from where we shovelled our driveway, but it didn’t look like it was the middle of winter. 

If you took a quick look, you might think it was the tail end of the cold, that spring had already sprung. It looked like the big old, cold winter had pretty much been beaten. 

But then Monday morning we woke up and wondered if that green grass on our lawn had been an illusion. Falling snow covered everything and didn’t seem to be slowing down one bit. 

In the end we got 42 cm of snow … and me and one other neighbour are the only ones on the street who don’t have snowblowers. 

Now it looks like the middle of winter. There is no deception, no mismatch of seasons. We definitely have ourselves some winter.

I can’t say I like it any more than I did that July when the temperature dropped by 20 degrees. But at least when I look outside, I don’t get fooled into thinking that summer is coming any time soon.

Here’s the thing: Life can be a little deceptive. Your life can seem to be doing really well – solid relationships, financially secure, healthy and in great shape. You could assume that you have nothing to worry about. But if you have not cared for your spiritual side, you’re deceived. Though from your perspective, externally life looks good in every way, what is not seen may reveal a different reality when you face God. Ensure your spiritual side is right with God and then you will not be deceived.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need proper perspective on right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one to your email inbox twice weekly.

by

Don’t Be Deceived By The Sun

Hey people, let’s not deceive ourselves – it’s brutally cold out there!

My wife, Lily, opened the blinds this morning and was very cheery. “Ah, the sun is shining”, she said, as if that made everything alright.

She made her comment like she was ready to take a magazine out to the deck and catch some rays as she relaxed in a lawn chair.

“It’s minus 22 Celsius out there”, I said.

Lily’s rebuttal was that it reminded her of Edmonton winters where the sun was the consolation for surviving weeks on end of needing a balaclava when you stepped outside the front door of your home.

She went as far as saying she would rather have -20 C and sunny than -4 C and dreary.

Give me the dreary! If we have to go another week with these temperatures, I’ll be done with winter big time!

I’m not sure why Lily has been so hypnotized by the sun’s power, or it could have nothing to do with the sun at all.

It may have more to do with the old coat she rediscovered last night.

We went out for dinner and Lily decided to wear a fur coat – that’s right, it’s fur, and it’s probably seal too.

But don’t get too upset at her owning a fur coat. It’s a hand-me-down from my grandmother. I figure that coat is probably between 70 and 90 years old.

When I was just a kid, I remember my grandmother wearing it to church when she came to visit us on weekends. My brother, John, and I made sure we sat on either side of her during church.

Besides the little purple candies she would give us, it was really sitting beside that coat of hers that was the treat. It was, and still is, the softest coat you will ever touch. It’s unbelievable. We would snuggle right up to her just to feel that fur.

You can’t stop touching it.

But I digress. Maybe the reason Lily doesn’t mind the cold is that this coat is the warmest coat she’s ever put on. She didn’t care how long it took us to walk from the car to the restaurant; she was toasty.

… I, on the other hand, was freezing and couldn’t wait to get inside.

Maybe she thinks she is impervious to the cold with this coat, I don’t know.

All I’m saying is let’s not be deceived or brainwashed by the sunny days, thinking that it’s okay that we are living in temperatures that would make a polar bear want to travel south for a vacation.

We weren’t planning on taking a winter vacation but now I’m entertaining the idea … and the longer this cold snap – sun and all – stays with us, the more the price of the trip doesn’t matter to me.

Let’s just all agree on one thing: it is crazy cold out there, and there is nothing good about it.

Here’s the thing: Sometimes we can get fixated on one thing so that something else doesn’t seem to be that bad. Maybe you struggle with a certain sin but, instead of dealing with it, you look to something good you are doing as if that cancels out the sin. To God, sin is missing the mark and, no matter how close to the mark you are in another area, you’re still missing the mark. Deal with the sin in front of you. Don’t mask it, justify it, or ignore it; just confess it and turn from it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to deal with? Leave your comments below.