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Growing up we played outside all the time, especially in the summertime. One of the games we loved to play was after it got dark out. My brother, myself, and our friends would play hide-and-seek.
We lived in the city so the houses on the block were very close to each other. All of us got together and picked a “seeker” to start the first game which then left the rest of us as the “hiders”. We would pick a spot, typically our front porch, as the safe zone. We would then set our boundaries for how far away you had from the porch to find a hiding spot, typically 3 or 4 houses down in each direction. If you got caught hiding past the boundary zone, you would be stuck being the seeker in the next game. The seeker would stay in the safe zone, close their eyes, and count to a number while everyone else went and hid. When the seeker was done counting, they would call out, “Ready or not here I come!” If you hadn’t found a spot by then you were in trouble of getting caught easily. The seeker would then walk around trying to find the hiders while keeping an eye on the safe zone. If a hider could make a break for it and get to the safe zone before the seeker caught them and tagged them, they would then be safe to be a hider for the next game. No one wanted to be stuck being the seeker! The fun was in being a hider.
If the seeker made the wrong move and went too far one way or the other toward one of the boundary lines and all the hiders were hiding the opposite way, the hiders would all run to the safe zone easily, leaving the seeker to be stuck being the seeker again.
The seeker would get sly as they were also in dark clothes making themselves look as invisible as possible in the dark. One way the seeker would catch the hiders is to give them a false sense of security. If the seeker hid in the darkness in the disguise of “searching” in one direction or another, the hider would feel secure to head to the safe zone not being able to see where the seeker was. The seeker would then spring out of the darkness suddenly to catch the hider! Gotcha, game over for the hider! The cat and mouse game would keep us entertained for as long as we could stay out playing in the dark!
The most interesting part about this game that made it work was the darkness. We never played this game in the light of day. Also, before it got dark you would put on dark clothes to help make it even harder to see you. Between the darkness of night and the darkness of your clothes, it helped you become invisible. Finally, one thing you tried to do was stay away from the streetlights, hiding as far away from them as you could. You would enter under the streetlight, revealing yourself in the light, only when you thought you could beat the seeker to the safe zone. You would then flat out go for it to get to safety!
Today, I believe we are in a wicked game of hide-and-seek. When I say “wicked” I don’t mean it merely as an adjective or something implying fun or exciting. Instead, I mean it in the truest sense of the word WICKED, as in evil, with all of our lives at stake. The seeker in this game wants us to avoid the eternal Light and wants us to stay away from the eternal Safe Zone. And one of the best ways for him to do this is to hide in the darkness and be invisible. This game, I am convinced, has eternal consequences for both you and me…and not just us, but our kids and grandkids, and everyone else around us.
Of course, I am talking about Satan and his desire for our eternity to be separated from God, the One who made us. To anyone reading this, I ask that you please hear me out.
We see a lot of hate and destruction in our world. We hear story after story of senseless wickedness happening all around us and yet, for the most part, we never tackle the truth of where this all comes from and even worse, why? Sometimes we even make excuses for it by tying it to some other reason such as rights to land, insanity, mental illness, or the like. Now don’t get me wrong, some of these reasons very well may be legitimate, but who is the author of these reasons? Where does the foundation come from? Unfortunately, we won’t dig deep enough to ask ourselves, what is the root cause for even those things? Instead, we accept them because the further we dig, we will get to the obvious common denominator that there is a Satan…there is a hell…and the darkness hates the Light. I am convinced that all of life’s problems, if you take them all down to their origin, come from our spiritual decay and Satan is its author.
When we deal with all of life’s tragedies, I believe there is one big elephant in the room, that sits in the corner, in the shadows of the darkness, who stays hidden. All the while, he pulls the strings to the destruction that happens. He sets the wheels in motion and watches the carnage unfold. It’s like he lights the fuse of the dynamite and watches the buildings of our lives either explode or implode. The reason I know this? Never once have I heard on any news coverage or any public conversations on a tragic event, that recognizes, let alone mentions, Satan has anything to do with it. Instead, we shake our heads in disbelief at what we see and hear. And then on to the next sinful decisions we make that cause tragedy without holding ourselves or the one who is pulling the strings accountable. If you think I am on a soapbox here, or maybe even discarding it as just another rant, might you be helping me prove my point?
So, let’s just cut to the chase. The Bible is the Word of God…the evidence for this can be researched and determined. If this is what you need to come to that conclusion, I encourage you to go seek the Truth and you will find it. This I am confident of. The Bible makes clear what and who our battle is with in this life and the Bible makes clear there is an eternity with Him or an eternity without Him… and we have free will to choose.
Ephesians 6:12 (ESV) says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
1 Peter 5:8 (ESV) says, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Think about this for a minute…if a gazelle (us) ignores a lion (Satan) who is stalking around it, how easily will that gazelle get crushed by the lion? Pretty easy…and then we see all the hate and destruction in our world, shake our heads, and ask why or how can this happen.
As a people, we need to stop letting the lion prowl around us devouring us with ease. It’s happening all over our world, from the grandest of stages to our local communities, into our households, and right down to our closest relationships.
The good news is just like in hide-and-seek, God almighty, has offered up to us the ultimate safe zone. This safe zone is eternal. This safe zone is an eternity spent with him, but to get there we need to come through the Light, which is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If we recognized the elephant in our world, hiding invisibly in the shadows of the dark corners of our tragedies, how easy would it become to recognize and know our need for Light in our world? Put simply, the gazelle can get to safety if he recognizes the lion coming, or even better, knows that the lion will always be lurking. The gazelle would then always be alert and always be prepared. How do we do that? We do this with the Word of God which is the sword of the Spirit. Going back to Ephesians 6 as referenced above, the Word of God tells us how to put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). With this, the devil that prowls around us like a lion lurking doesn’t stand a chance!
If you’ve read this far, I am truly blessed by you! I encourage all of us to rise up. If you’re a Christian, commit to getting into God’s Word as a regular part of your life. Take up arms against the evil one. If you are a non-Christian, I humbly challenge you to consider this. I don’t have to prove to you the hate and destruction that is increasing in our world. You are very smart, knowing it’s there. Please consider the root of why it is happening and what this means for your life and the lives of your loved ones.
I will leave you all with this. If you find a weed, cut it down to the ground, and leave its roots under the surface in the ground, it will easily grow back. You have to pull its roots from the ground to destroy it completely. The roots, you guessed it, are invisible, hidden beneath the ground! We must stop looking at all the hate and destruction and think we can cut it to the ground to eliminate it, all while leaving the root, Satan, to stay invisible under the ground. He laughs at us only to spring up more hate and destruction when we did not use the Armor of God to pull him up from the ground, expose him, and defeat him in the name of our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
I am committing to fight this battle with the Word of God! I would love it if you’d join me.
Have Character!
J. Noah Russell
