My heart is saddened by the recent events in Minneapolis, and heartbroken over the thought of those children being terrorized by a tortured, dark soul who had lost his way. The Minneapolis shooter was a vessel of the enemy that all the laws and legislation we could think to put into place would never be able to touch.

Humans have perfected hiding behind layers of masks so much that we mistakenly begin to believe our own lies. We think we can handle whatever comes our way. The truth is, we can’t. Only God can heal our fractured souls.

People are desperate for truth over political stance. Laura Ingraham once wrote a book titled Shut up and Sing, surrounding the idea that there are so many artists these days who use their platform to push a certain narrative rather than just simply entertain. While messages with hidden agendas are nothing new, the sheer velocity and force of them can sometimes feel overwhelming once you see them for what they are.

It’s like underhanded humor. Underhanded humor often involves subtle insults disguised as jokes or compliments, like “you have such lovely skin, it’s probably because you sweat so much”. Uhhh, thanks, I think? The person handing you the so-called compliment is hoping you are stupid enough not to catch what is so glaringly obvious to everyone else.

Why the narrative? What purpose does it have? If you have ever seen a river otter fish for food, they sometimes work in groups to splash and drive fish towards the banks and shallower waters where they are easier to catch.  Out of fear of getting caught the fish will actually swim into an area that sets them up for being caught. 

That’s how the narrative works. It allows a group of elites, secret societies whose members hide their agendas while pretending to be on all sides, to drive us and set us up for purposes they hope we are too stupid to figure out. In the meantime we as a society and around the globe are duped into stoking one culture or class of people or race or those who band together differently to a high-pitch fever against another in order to accomplish sinister goals. Even those who say they believe in Jesus are so often caught unaware because we buy into whatever political or social narrative pushes us the hardest.

You’ve heard it said that politics is downhill from culture. The truth is, culture should be downhill from the Church. Although we are not yet there, we are being called to ARISE, for a new day is coming!

How did citizens of Rome behave towards Rome if or when they became Christians? Though Paul took advantage of his Roman citizenship when it was needed, he always contended for the individual over the morals of a nation as a whole. A good example of this can be found in 1 Timothy 6:1, which says:

All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against.

In case you missed it, Paul’s focus was not on the need for cultural reformation around slavery but rather on our lives bringing honor to God. Does that mean we should never allow cultural reformation to become a focus? No – just not the primary driving focus. The primary driving focus for any believer should be Christ Himself. Transformation from the inside-out, one individual at a time.

Don’t be driven by the circumstances of this world or allow yourself to become polarized in ideals outside of His Kingdom. There are two ways to drive out the demons. We can cast them out, or we can crowd them out. One by one by one. Amen.