Satan's Seeds

In the medical world, most of our enemies are invisible. They're invisible because they're microscopic. You'd be amazed at how careful and precise we have to be cleaning surgery rooms, and even exam rooms, even when there's no visible debris. I imagine that if an outsider watched it happen, without knowing why, we'd all look like we had OCD for cleaning everything we touch.

But there is good reason. We have to be on the lookout for bacteria, viruses, protozoa, fungi, and even parasites (like heartworms). None of which we can see. Instead, we learn about the effects that they have on the animal's anatomy so we can hopefully recognize it when we see it. We also learn a little about what to do with it once it's identified.

In dance this semester, we've learned more about the character of lies and who they come from, as well as the character of the Truth (as in, it's not a lie, and as in "I am the way the truth and the life"). At one point, my teacher was talking about the role that surrender plays in fighting lies in our lives. She described a lie as a tiny little thing that we might not even believe at first, but as it keeps coming and we keep thinking on it and developing a relationship with it, it grows deep in our hearts and gets tangled up in them. It gets so tangled, in fact, that we can't remove it ourselves, so we must give our whole heart, tangled lies and all, to God so he can remove them for us.

I know it's a gross picture, but during our meditation time after the lesson, I suddenly saw my heart as it would look with the parasite heartworm. Being in vet tech school, I've seen such pictures, and they aren't pretty. Just imagine a normal heart with long, white, stringy, living things curled around and inside it. I pictured that, and it only took a moment for me to make the connection. Lies are parasites.

Heartworm is a particularly good example, because of its life cycle. As many of you likely know, heartworm is passed to our dogs through mosquitoes (much like West Nile Virus). The mosquito bites an infected dog, then carries the microscopic heartworm larva around until it bites the next dog, injecting the parasite. We've all likely been bitten by a mosquito and can relate to the discomfort they cause. Likewise, at dance we've learned that lies often stem from a hurtful comment or action from others, and that makes us more likely to believe them (in my case, anyway). It may seem like no big deal at the time, like an insect bite that will go away soon enough. But little do we know that it has injected something that can tangle in our hearts and suck our lives away.

That's the next stage. The heartworm larva that developed in the mosquito now moves into the tissues to grow up. After several months, it moves back into the blood stream and heart, where it develops into adulthood, and where it draws its life support. Likewise, lies grow slowly in the back of our mind, not quite affecting us yet. But then, after we've been considering it for a while, it moves into our heart as we start to believe it. There it thrives and continues to grow, developing more lies like a heartworm reproducing.

If a heartworm actually reaches the heart, the animal requires treatment. If it does not receive treatment, the animal will die. Treating heartworm with medication is painful and expensive. It used to be that the only treatment was open heart surgery. Now we have drugs that succeed most of the time, if we catch the disease early enough. The point is, lies must be addressed as soon as they are identified. They must be completely removed, and so must all their offspring.

Like with heartworm, the best treatment for lies is prevention. We have heartworm prevention medicine that we give to dogs on a regular basis, and it serves to destroy the heartworm before it reaches the bloodstream. It doesn't prevent the mosquito bite, but it does guard against the parasite itself. The most common brand is HeartGuard.

We have preventative measures that we can take against lies as well. We can try and learn about each and every lie that might one day come our way, but if we try that, we'll be overwhelmed and our focus will be in the wrong place. Instead, we need to learn the truth. Once we know the truth, we can tell that anything that doesn't look like the truth is a lie. We need to cultivate the truth in our lives, and develop a relationship with it.

I'm not saying that recognizing lies is easy, even when you do know the truth. Personally, the lies that stump me are usually "backed up" by scripture (like when Jesus was tempted to jump off the temple). And I'm personally going through the treatment as well as the prevention. But the good news is that we are not alone in this fight. God is more than eager to use his truth to set us free. And like my dance teacher said, when we surrender our whole hearts to him, tangled as they are, he will meticulously pull out parasite after parasite, replacing them with new healthy words from him until our hearts are functional again. I believe that I can be set free from the lies I believe, and I know you can too.

A-Z Psalm-like Thingy

I was reading Psalm 37, which my NIV tells me is one of the psalms that David wrote where each line starts with a letter of the alphabet. I decided that that sounded pretty fun to do, so here's mine:

All the ways of the Lord are good, therefore I will trust in him.
Because of his great love for me, I will not be afraid.
Can't you remember the faithfulness of the Lord? I bring all his acts to my mind, and find peace.
Darkness may overshadow me, but his light breaks through, because he lives in me.
Every hour of every day his ears are tuned to me. His eyes watch over my every step.
Forever I will dwell in his presence, because he has made a way to call me his own.
Goodness and love permeate his inmost being. Never has his way shown deceit.
Higher than the mountains and deeper than the seas, his grace and his love know no bounds.
Intimately, he calls me to him day by day.
Justly, he judges all the peoples of the earth. He will not let wickedness go unpunished, nor will the righteous go unrewarded.
Know, oh my heart, that he will never leave you. Your Heavenly Father will not abandon you to your enemies.

Living in me is the Creator of life. All his ways are good.
Many things the Lord has promised. All of them will come to be. 
Not one person suffers that he does not see. Great is the mercy of the Lord.
One day, God will invite me to join him in paradise. I lack nothing in his presence. 
People sinned, and he came to their rescue. Never has he forsaken those he loves. 
Queer and wonderful are all the ways of the Lord. He weaves the story of the world with perfection. 
Run towards the Father of life! Run into his open arms and find peace! 
Sweet and nourishing are the words of the Lord. When I drink them in I find life. 
Trust in him, oh my heart! Let him care for your every need! 
Until I hear his voice calling in the morning I am dead, but he awakens my heart without fail. 
Victorious, he will reign forever! The Lord is mighty in battle! He is powerful beyond measure! 
Watching the earth day and night is his delight. He rejoices to care for his children. 
X is for the Cross, the final resting place for my sin. Great is his love for me! 
Year after year I wait and long for the day of the Lord. The earth will fade, but he will remain. 
Zeal for the Lord consumes my soul! His faithfulness continues through all generations. His name is highly exalted!