Ignore that noise over there in the tall brush...
One of Satan's most devious tricks is to convince us he isn't lurking around. He isn't here. He isn't a threat...go on, live your life the way "you" want...there are no consequences, there are no traps.

We see this in nature. The ONLY reason a lion captures a gazelle is stealth. If the lion stayed out in the open, he'd never eat. The reason he eats is that he hides. He stays in the tall grass waiting...just waiting for one gazelle to get lazy, one gazelle to ignore his instincts, one gazelle to get just a little too close to the tall grass.

The Message has a great summary of Ephesians 5:14-16 - "So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are dangerous times!"

In 1 Peter, Satan is compared to a lion - "Be on guard, you enemy - Satan - prowls around like a lion looking for someone to devour."

We are at war. And yet, so many of us go about our daily lives ignoring the enemy. We send our kids off to school and simply ignore the warfare they face. There was a story last week about kids in England being faced with "education" on alternative lifestyles. They had a gay/lesbian week and read stories and watched videos on alternative lifestyles. These were young kids. Some parents were rightly concerned and took their kids out of school. The school system penalized the kids and even said they would seek to prosecute parents for taking their kids out of school. One report even said the parents could face jail time. Jail time for guarding their kids from material the parents found offensive!

We are at war. There is an enemy and he is coming after our kids very hard, very fast. It is a full-out assault and we are seemingly numb to it.

I talk to parents a lot about kids and the problems the kids face and it just amazes me how easily we dismiss behavior with, "Well, we all did that kind of stuff back when we were kids..." Don't get me wrong, I say/think that too. But then I also think, "What a minute, just because I screwed up when I was young...is that the life I want for my kids? Does it make it right?" I fear we just too easily rationalize it without the context of an enemy and warfare.

We send our kids off to hell every day in schools. That is dramatic but think about it - they go into hostile environments - teachers with agendas, curriculum that pushes themes far removed from God's word, sex, drugs, drinking, peer pressure, back-biting "friends", cliques, pressures to conform. Our kids face an all-out assault every single day. Even the little ones.

John Eldredge said in Waking the Dead - "Christianity isn't a religion about going to Sunday school, potluck suppers, being nice, holding car washes, sending our second-hand clothes off to Mexico. This is a world at war. Something large and immensely dangerous is unfolding all around us, we are caught up in it and we have been given a key role to play."

I read this today on a blog. I don't know this person or where they are spiritually but I have some hunches. It appears they are talking about walking away from a relationship and perhaps even a commitment. I share this not to beat on this person but to use it as an example of how far off the path we have traveled.

"Sometimes we need to part from this to have a fresh start. Sometimes we need to separate from the past so we can grow, transform and bloom into our highest expression of self in this lifetime. Sometimes we need to re-create an entire new life. Sometimes we have to say goodbye when things no longer fulfill a need, or make us unhappy. Life is short, why should we waste it on anything but happiness?"

Is that what life is about...my transformation into the highest expression of "self"? I was made in "self's" image not God's? Life for many of us has become simply the pursuit of happiness. "God loves me because I am happy." This person is saying sometimes it is necessary to just walk away from relationships/commitments if they no longer fulfill us or make us happy. They hauntingly end it with "Why should we waste life on anything but happiness?"

The pursuit of happiness would be just fine if there was no enemy. In Eden, happiness was freely abounding. But in this life, there is an enemy and we are at war. A pursuit of finding/doing whatever makes us happy will lead us into a trap. If the gazelle just pursued what made it happy, it would eat whatever grass looked appealing. It would stray from the pack. It wouldn't fear the tall grass - that grass would look tasty. And the gazelle would quickly become someone else's lunch.

We cannot ignore the presence of the enemy and just simply pursue the happy life. It is incredibly naive and very dangerous. To do so gives Satan open field to take us out.

God doesn't want us leading lives of misery - I'm not saying that. He came and liberated us so that we might have abundant life. God gets the last word. We know how the battle will end. God will be victorious. He defeated death at Calvary. "It IS finished"...the battle is won. My pleading is that we pay attention to the war going on around us. Pray for your children. Wrap them in prayer as they go off to school. Pay attention to what they are doing. Watch the cell phones, texting and email. Kids can so easily fall prey to the predator -- we need to be on guard.

Thankfully and gracefully however the war HAS been won!

Soar!