Last night, tragedy hit as we all stood by watching, helpless to prevent the unavoidable damage and loss except to move to higher ground to wait for the havoc and destruction to carry itself out.

My kids and grandkids are safe and relatively unscathed. A few broken tree limbs and excess water but otherwise they are fine. However, this morning revealed so many friends who lost much more and many who have no home to which they can return.

Hurricanes happen all the time. Helene, however, had the intensity and trajectory to wreak more destruction than anticipated. She’s now winding down and being dispersed and diffused into manageable localized tropical storms and clearer skies.

And not for the first time, nor the last, as they always do, the people rise in the morning to assess and rebuild.

We are our brothers’ keepers. Pray, give money, give time and take caution over so many of the things which are out of our control, but reluctantly in our purview of responsibility.

God made a perfect world for us, then made us, and gave us free will, which we promptly used to defy Him and His laws of nature under which we were to flourish.

After generations of restrictions, God chose to redeem His imperfect creation with a sacrificial offer of divine and eternal forgiveness without restrictions to those who would willingly return to Him with a confession of belief and faith in the object of His supreme act of personal sacrifice, a humanly relatable demonstration of the depth of His abiding love for us.

Accepting His gift, we are restored to His original plan, promise, and purpose for an infinite future back in His realm.

That’s the gospel in a nutshell, foretold from the beginning, revealed for today.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. —John 3:16

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers,

so that they cannot see the light of the gospel

that displays the glory of Christ,

who is the image of God.—2 Cor 4:4

Like a brick wall.

Talking with certain people seems to move a conversation no closer to an understanding.

In town square issue discussions today, even hard evidence, fullest versions of edited and weaponized sound bytes, independent statistical data points, and to an even lesser extent, first hand personal accounts, count for little to nothing to those so glazed over by a durable resistant coating of politics, partisanship, irrational beliefs, or painful personal history, they develop a hard shell finish resisting any challenge.

Add deep fakes, autotune, and AI and the truth will soon be indistinguishable from reality.

Discussions of the spiritual realm are no different.

Take Paul’s abrupt and instantaneous conversion from persecutor of the faith to believer in the faith witnessed by many.

Take Jeremiah’s relentless proclamations of Christ to those who would listen and hear.

Peter, Philip, Jonah, and even Jesus himself, all testify to present compelling cases for faith and belief. All suffered avoidable gruesome deaths refusing renunciation.

Truth begs to be told, but today, it is the voice least often heard.

Use of personal and testimonial accounts and supporting scriptures are quickly written off by the ill informed as an appeal to authority supported largely by the authority’s claims, a basic philosophical error of fallacy by the same name.

Getting anywhere with anyone used to be subject to reasonable rules of engagement and debate where the better argument often converted observers.

God doesn’t blind people to truth. It is the god of this world who spins truth into lies, and ignorance completes the circle, imprisoning those caught up in it.

But don’t give up.

The holy spirit works alongside us to counter the insidious tactics in this war waged against truth, against us, and against those who desperately need to see the Truth.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The mind is a terrible thing to waste, yet we spend an unholy number of neurons on the creation of anxieties and emotions based on falsehoods and ignoble self-deceptions.

Our brains process 74GB of information daily, much of which is phony, false or destructive of character.

And as we allow such thoughts to take root, they choke out the possibility of your internal garden bearing anything of beauty or utility for yourself or those around you.

This verse doesn’t advocate for a Pollyanna view of life through optimistic rose colored glasses. It is more that what you think on, you will become.

The mind creates thoughts the heart will follow and the heart behaves for others accordingly.

My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If you recognize the need to change your mind, allow God to feed that need.

Your heart and relationships will follow suit.

I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3‬:‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

All in.

Our life in today’s world is littered with so many things to get and gain, each filling an empty space of want that brings a temporary satisfaction until the next one comes along.

Like salivating dogs, we chase after garbage in a relentless search for completion.

“Knowing Christ Jesus” is a hard sell and intangible substitute for a nation of people so trained on seeking the next big thing. Worse yet, to find and follow Christ also requires abandonment of all those things we have worked so hard to acquire.

To be genuinely all in is a tough sell, but like clearing out a stuffed garage, we do so as an expression of our fealty and commitment to create a space where He alone can reside because the experience of knowing Him trumps all idols we’ve accumulated.

His surpassing worth to our life now and in eternity counts all else tangible and intangible rubbish.

It’s Sunday.

A good day to clean out the garage and take out the garbage.