The L.I.E. the World Tells Us

How long has it been since you thought about critical thinking?

My heart grieves for the teachers pressured to “teach to the test.”  I think God blesses the ones that find a way to still include critical thinking and teaching our students the skills to learn and evaluate the world for themselves.

I feel it’s critical for us to teach how to hold our faith despite the media / social networking / Google driven society we live in today.  And learn to use these tools rather than the tools using us.  

Media says, “Use this toothpaste to help someone love you.”  “Drive this car and the girls will want you.”  “Promote this cause, if you’re a good and reasonable (read sane) person.”

Social media is overrun with the gossip of the world, in cute quotes & pictures.  YouTube is the way to an audience, whether or not you have any truth to share.  Even the fact that you can fulfill your need for community and interaction on social media alone, is a big lie.

We, as safe Christian adults, cannot drown out the lies of the world.  Yet, Christ didn’t come to shout down Rome, much to the Jews’ dismay.

Instead, He worked on making us think, find the hidden truth, dig into our faith and access the power of our Holy    Father to stand against the world by using God’s Word.  He called us to go into the world with faith, discipling the sheep in love and not judging or condemning the lost.  Yet there is truth in these tools, too.  They are now the new mission fields of our time.

The questions I’ve used the most in my 11 years as a missionary are, “what do you think?  Do you think it’s true?”  Listening and then asking more questions.  No one wins when we preach “at” someone, even if it’s truth.  How much stronger the skill becomes when they learn to get there themselves with God.

We talk a lot about the result of following the world’s L.I.E. : Loneliness, Isolation, Emptiness.

Has social media made you feel more alone?  Has a product or entertainment ever filled an emptiness?  God calls me to be in the world, but not of it.  How do I use critical thinking & God’s truth to lift Him up and love the lost?