Long ago, I read that Jesus was either a lunatic, a liar, or Lord of all.

In either capacity, he claimed a mission to save us from the deceiver of this world.

Since his entrance on the world stage, billions and billions have come to believe in him as option three, Lord of all.

If he had indeed been a lunatic or liar, his mission against deception would have been a heinously more evil imposition of a second and more perverse deception in its place.

That’s not the Jesus understood by even lunatics or liars, leaving us only one divine option.

We all walk on ledges where wisdom and prayer keeps us horizontal and hope and love moves us forward, forces which together make chance increasingly unlikely.

Woe unto them who call evil good, and good evil.

Isaiah 5:20

Reframing is the oldest trick in the book.

In particular the Bible.

Eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was reframed to Eve by the serpent as something that would open her eyes, seeing God in his true, selfish form.

As she did then, we still do today.

We so easily fall for the lie. Except now, it’s the media, politicians and our elected leaders who openly deceive us for their gain.

Wake up, be smart, speak out and call out deception in all its forms.

Be smarter than a garden snake.

The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in this world.—A.W. Tozer

The sooner we accept that while we are in this world but not of this world, and will be home soon enough, the less likely fear and discouragement will succeed in thwarting our mission.

Still, win our battles, though losing the war is prophesied imminent.

We know how this world ends but we also know, thank God, it was never our home anyway.

“I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭11‬:‭8‬

Never be reluctant nor ashamed to ask for what you need from those who may be equipped to help.

When you work nonprofit with a deep passion for the people of your mission, make the ask of others without shame. It’s an ask, not a demand, and your love for them remains unchanged by their response.

You are merely sharing needs of others to others for others.

God alone stirs people to action according to His timing, plan and purpose.

But be audacious.

The most unfortunate truth is that the older we get, the narrower our search for purpose becomes.

Age adds experiences that begin to make deeply personal differences much later than they ought.

As years pass, my faith becomes more central to my being and the pursuit of it as the defining “meaning of life” is so much more obvious and clearer well beyond what had been present in my merely curious early years.

Urgency to let others know that time is short and decisions they make now will determine their destination later drives us old men to instruct young men from experience, love and camaraderie to make changes in themselves and in the world while they still can,

narrowing their own search for purpose and meaning.

With all that’s going on these days, I’m not entirely convinced the question is whether we are all indeed equal, but rather, do we actually want and aspire to be?

Hear me out.

We publicly and politically abhor practices that promote differentiation between people while at the same time, behind the scenes, we’re actively differentiating ourselves from one another, climbing ladders from lower rungs onto those higher, more distinguished or better regarded by society.

Like it or not, more measures of success in American culture still lie squarely in the value of being better than, with little to no reward for being equal to. Not better intrinsically but positionally.

The drive to accomplish crosses race, sex and all other classifications.

Those less successful at the climb remain underfoot to the more accomplished climbers in society compelled to prove it with better titles, money, power and prestige afforded by the gains of distance in their earned position from where they once began.

Chances that the efforts of the two groups ever meeting are continually reduced and subsequently, lines between the two become greater and more clearly defined.

Maybe what we really need is a better means of measuring achievement not in light of being relative to that of another, then to inspire, educate, and equip people solely to be better climbers for reasons of personal growth.

Equality may be less about the height attained but more about progress made from where each begins his own journey