THE SILENCE KILLER

The adventure never lived

I stole this discussion from Jordan Peterson. Yet the idea has been on my conscience for years. This idea of trading silence for safety is the great robber of a well-lived life and an adventure extinguished. I have known several people who claim direct interaction with God either in dreams or being slain in His Spirit, slammed to the ground because they were defiant to His Wisdom. Truthfully, we have all conversed with God, the still soft voice of our conscience. Yes, we are conscious; that voice of reason, the conscience that tells us something, is off-kilter, crooked, distorted of truth, most times just a deception, the lies of human to human. We all have encountered God in our conscience, the little men sitting on our shoulders, the right the conscience of truth, and the left the conscience of deceit and fear of the truth.

From Webster’s definition: Though they sound similar, conscience is a noun referring to the awareness that one’s actions are right or wrong, as in one’s “guilty conscience.” At the same time, conscious is an adjective meaning “awake” or “alert.” If you were asleep, you would be “unconscious.” To keep them straight, remember to stay conscious of what your conscience is telling you to do.

We are all fully conscious of our conscience, yet we quickly ignore the messages we receive.  We have all turned away when we should have pressed forward against tyranny, deceit, and evil, usually to save our skin. Doing the right thing is always dangerous, will likely cause pain and suffering, and is always an adventure. We can choose adventure and make a difference, even change the world or play it safe, accomplishing little in our lives. Our two sons have often paid the price for stepping in to make right what is wrong and wound up black-eyed yet satisfied with the result.

The Bible speaks to our lack of strength to choose truth over safety in the book of Jonah. God said to Jonah and challenged him to a great adventure. God asked Jonah to stand for what was right before a hundred thousand people in Nineveh who hated Him and were spiteful towards God. Jonah knew in his heart and conscience what was right, but he chose to run away from his adventure, be safe, and escape across the sea. We will all learn that we will never outrun our conscience, God. While we sleep in our secure, comfortable, calm sea of life, the wind presses against the waters, and suddenly, life is caught in a storm.  What we feared most was knocking on our door and about to muck up our lives. Every wrong decision will catch up to us and be a shipwreck of a selfish dream. When an impending crash presses us upon the rocks, we cry out to God for a second chance, and as God did with Jonah, he always allows us to change our path, do His will, and do the right thing. In Jonah’s case, it took three days in the belly of evil to welcome his second chance.

We each hear the voice of God, convicted to speak the truth and call out evil. God will call us to do the right thing and go to Nineveh. We have a choice to take the adventure head-on or shy away into a comfortable cocoon of selfishness. We can stand firm against evil, tyranny, and fear. God calls us to stand firm in the truth, against flaming arrows, as God instructs us in:

Ephesians 6:13-17–Therefore put on the whole armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

1 Corinthians 15 & 16—Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain; Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love; 

We live in inescapable evil times. Jesus foretold us of the events of today—nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. My last essay, ‘And God Said,’ main purpose is the realization of how prevalent the deception of evil has erupted across the earth. Humankind has refined what was good, made it bad, and turned evil into good.

I tire of the constant bombardment of media pundits claiming this and that and knowing nothing about either. It is exhausting to listen to politicians claim they have your interest in mind and then turn to the party line to secure their seat in Congress. I dispatch ridiculous statements from prominent marketing professionals. I was born in 1950 in the year of our Lord. I grew up in the fifties without a television or internet, armed only with a radio and a party line phone. Narratives in the fifties were local in bars, restaurants, family dinners, and over board games. My mind was at peace with the bit of noise of the world, and I was focused only on the adventure I should seek at any given moment. I could think in peace without being informed on things that mattered little. Those days in my garden of Eden were as if the fall of man never happened. Those days were without the knowledge of evil.

Fast-forward seventy-four years to April 2024, evil is inescapable; it is front page every day, all day. Anyone with a YouTube channel can be a journalist with angry opinions, deceitful narratives, political alignments, gender preferences, racial biases, and must-have products to sell. I desire to go where no information airwaves reach and live in ignorant bliss of the madness of man walking with God in the cool of the morning. That desire is selfish and filled with greed. It consumes all the best of this world while leaving it in dire straights for all who follow. God does not call us to escape the evil of this earth. God calls us to stand firm against it, defend the truth, and love one another; now, that is a novel concept.

Jesus taught us to be aware of such evil and not run away. Jesus taught that these things, as painful and sorrowful as they are, must happen before evil can be locked away forever: Matthew 24 — 42: “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

We are called to be conscious of where evil is, stand against deceptions, and spread the good news of Jesus’s saving grace. Now, where in the teachings of Christ are the words retreat, comfort, or easy? It is harder for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than for a rich, comfortable, safe man to enter the Kingdom of God.

We have a choice to make and a side to take:

• A quiet comfort of ignorant bliss, playing video games, allowing evil to consume and gorge himself on the souls of humankind.—OR

• Choose a dangerous adventure with Christ, standing firm, suited in God’s armor, guarding our post, and entering the spiritual battle that rages everywhere. Be a David and face the giants of evil, exposing the truth. Never be silent, and always be at risk.

Be fearless, never silent, never ignorant, with eyes, ears, and heart wide open to God’s Word and Wisdom. Always be tuned to your conscience’s still, small voice—do the right thing. STAND FIRM.