Yesterday was a red-letter day for me–I sold my very first box of Creative Phodography greeting cards to some very nice person in Texas. No wonder I love Texas! 🙂

Last night as I watched the debate, I felt my heart grow heavy for our country. People have been blinded in this election and the last, and logic has died in the face of emotion. For example, I heard a “man on the street” interview about the subject of freedom. The interviewer asked a woman, “What do you believe about freedom? Should a woman have the freedom to choose an abortion?”

“Oh, yes,” the woman on the street responded. “Absolutely she needs to have that freedom. After all, this is America.”

“What about light bulbs?” the interviewer asked. “Should people have the freedom to choose whatever lightbulbs they want to burn in their house?”

“That’s different,” the woman answered. “Burning old-fashioned lightbulbs is bad for the environment, so it hurts everyone. I’m in favor of laws to do away with those old light bulbs.”

“What about SUVs? Shouldn’t people have the freedom to drive whatever kind of car they want?”

“Not if it guzzles gas and is bad for the environment,” the woman answered. “We need to outlaw those things.”

And on and on it went. Freedom to kill an unborn child–no matter that it would be “bad” for the child and even for the rest of the world, for who knows what that child might have done to benefit humanity–but no freedom when it comes to light bulbs and cars and guns . . .

Logic is dead. Emotion reigns supreme. But the root of emotion, the heart, is deceitful and desperately wicked. (Jeremiah 17:9). We need to take a hard look at how illogical and dangerous our positions have become.

A few years ago an old friend spoke in church. Bruch McCoy, who I knew back in my Re’Gen days, is now a pastor and a “Dr.” besides. In his sermon I found a powerful metaphor.

Bruce told the story of a jewel thief who broke into a jewelry store and didn’t steal a thing. Instead, he switched the price tags. The next day, in full view of the clerks and security cameras, he came in and bought the most valuable items for a pittance. Afterward, the store clerk thanked him for his business.

Bruce went on to describe how Satan has tricked our culture. We have sold the most valuable things–fidelity, honor, truth, the value of life–for a pittance while placing too high a value on fleeting things–material goods, fame, appearance, and vain philosophies.

And as I sat there and thought more about it, I realize that this is what Michelle, my protagonist in the elevator, had done. I had written a scene where she shoplifted an outfit from the department store where she worked. And while the scene worked, it pushed at the boundaries of credibility a bit. But then it hit me–much easier for her to switch the price tags! And later, at the moment of her epiphany, she realized what she had done and how that philosophy, if you will, had affected her entire life.

My heart breaks when I see how people have been fooled in our nation, paying dearly for the cheap and ephemeral and ignoring the eternal and valuable.

May God help us see the truth.
Angie