Summer Fare: How easily we are deceived

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elementary spirits of the world, and not according to Christ (Colossians 2:8)

My men went camping this week and weren’t due back until Saturday night. My daughter and I were taking advantage of the quiet home to get some serious academic work done. She has been wrapping up an on-line course and I have been continuing my work on revisions to the Study Guide for Live ABOVE the Chaos. Friday night we headed to Barnes & Noble for a change of scenery and the chance to hang out a bit.

When we got home, the garage door was up.

Hmmm, that’s unusual. I don’t usually leave the house open like that. What was I thinking?

My daughter entered the home before me and quickly exited shouting, “Mom, all the lights are on and I heard a noise. Someone is in there!”

As we got back into the car while she scrambled for her phone to call 9-1-1, she again yelled, “Mom! The lights just went out. There really is someone in the house!”

While she was making the call, I backed down the driveway and parked on the street to keep watch over what was happening in our home.

Sure enough, the front door opened and out came a young kid.

“Yup, there he is. A young kid is robbing our home,” I thought.

Then I heard my daughter say to the 9-1-1 operator, “Forget it. My dad and brother are home. I am fine. We are not being robbed.”

Yup, you read that correctly. Our men had decided to surprise us by coming home a day early. Rightly assuming that we had seen their car in the driveway (yes indeed, it was there) they had planned on a fun game of hide-and-seek. When we entered the home, they wanted us to excitedly come find them (thus the turning out of the lights).

This is what you would call a fun plan gone wrong.

So what went wrong?

• Why did I assume I must have left the garage door open?
• Why did I not see their vehicle parked in the driveway?
• Why did I not recognize my own son right away when he came out the front door?

Because IN MY MIND my husband and son were not home.

Therefore, when making conclusions about what was happening, they were never a possibility.

I have been shocked at the power my mental grid had over the interpretation of my reality.

I have been shocked at how easily I was deceived because of the pre-conceived notions and a grid-lock mindset that my men were not home.

The Bible tells us over and over again that we can be deceived.

I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments (Colossians 2:4).

I did not consider the possibility that my men were home because it was not plausible, or so I thought. Yet as I grappled for other plausible conclusions to make sense of what I was seeing every one of my considerations was wrong.

We cannot even trust our own minds.

Knowing our Bible well protects us from being taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit (Colossians 2:8). Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived….All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:12-13, 16).

Let’s not allow the relaxed months of summer lull us into relaxing our habits of reading, meditating upon, memorizing and studying our Bibles.

When we pull out our suitcases for a trip, let’s pack our Bible first.

Blog readers: Has your mind ever played tricks on you?

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