Licenses are a little more sophisticated now than they were then. Still,
a lot of people are cutting out parts of their life, flipping them over, and
pretending to be someone they aren’t yet. We all do it to greater or lesser
degrees. It’s not for malicious reasons. We all have this idea of who we
want to be, so while we’re getting there, it’s easy to pretend we’re older
or smarter or even believe in God more than we actually do. The longer
we’ve been doing it, the better we get at it, or so it seems. God, of course,
sees right through it, and quite often the people around us do too. The sad
fact is, we’re usually the only ones getting fooled.
We get so good at fooling other people and reading our own news
clippings about who we are that we end up believing we’ve arrived at a
place we haven’t yet. It’s why some of us buy expensive cars or boats or
homes we can’t really afford. We’ve fooled ourselves into thinking we
can afford it now, when we won’t actually be able to afford it for a few
years. It’s why we take leadership positions or get on stages when we’re
still working out the basics in our own faith. It’s like we’ve flipped the 9
and made it a 6. But God sees right through the things we forge in our
lives.
There was a guy and his wife in the Bible named Ananias and Sapphira
who sold some property. They lived in a community where everyone’s
needs were being met and they wanted to do their part, so they sold their
land. When I first read this story, I was blown away at the generosity of
these two. I haven’t met anyone who sold a home or a plot of land and
dropped off the money at the local church or community center. A
lawnmower, a couple of used books, an outdated laptop, or an old
mattress, maybe, but all the money from selling their land? I’ve never
heard of anything even close.
There’s a hill behind our house in San Diego. Sweet Maria tells me to
hike it to get some exercise. I’m good for about three round trips up and