Think Again!

48 • Think Again: Transformation That Yields a Return on God’s Investment

the actions of others, not your sex, not your age, not your race, not your health. God can use you despite your past. He used Moses, despite the fact that he was a murdering fugitive in the desert. He used Paul, even though he persecuted the Church. God is not troubled by long delays and detours in your life. Your identity is not defined by the accuser reading your file! Neo saw the Matrix for what it was: a world of deception where people walked around oblivious to the real world. Therefore, he was not affected by the interrogator looking at his dossier. Your past does not dictate your future. In the same way, you don’t have to be a victim of every thought that travels across your brain cells. Scheme #5: Relax, Take a Day Off One of the schemes he uses is to coax us into taking a day off from the battle. One way he does this is by convincing us the battle is temporary, that it can go away. But the moment we said “yes” to Christ, the fight began. We can’t stop it, and we can’t hope it will go away. C.S. Lewis said, “The problem of the Christian life comes the very moment you wake up. All your wishes and hopes rush at you like wild animals. The first job consists in shoving them back, in listening to that other voice, letting that larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.” 22 Another way the deceiver urges us to relax is to think that all the important events of life are coming in the future . So we let down our guard, thinking the “big game” is coming later. Like Luke Skywalker always looking to the horizon, we can miss the opportunities right in front of us. Chole said, “We have a tendency to assume that main is somewhere out there, not right here. So we treat today with less respect than we should, as though the current gift of time before us is simply a filler. In such an atmosphere, it is easy for us to rationalize indulging our appetites because