WHERE ARE TOTO AND THE BRAVE BOY?

I remember back in my college days going to a lecture given by B.F. Skinner on conditioning.  I remember walking out of that lecture sobered and a bit scared at how easily it is to manipulate people and how easily people allow themselves to be manipulated without even knowing it.  Then I took a class in Advertising that sobered me even more.  Being a behavioral science major the two major money draws for careers after graduation were advertising and criminal investigation, both dealing with what makes people do what they do.  I observed that there was a fine line between these choices.  The conclusion of my studies made me very aware of how easily people can be deceived and how easy it is to control other people.

As a believer in Jesus I am aware that since the beginning there has been a force that is in the world that is anti God, and the main tool used by that force is deception, and the place that tool is used is the mind of people.  Deception misleads one into error unless the mind is grounded and centered in the Truth.  Deception uses doubt, distortion, denial, and deformation.  Satan used this tool on Adam and Eve in the garden; he uses it today with all human beings in the world.  He attempted to use it with Jesus in the wilderness but failed.  Jesus withstood Satan’s tool of deception and left for me a lesson and an example.

Jesus stood grounded and centered in God’s Truth, in the Word of God, and Satan had no other option except to, “BE GONE.”  The lesson I have learned is to go to the Source; always look behind the curtain where the controls are and find out whose hands are on the levers.

It is difficult these days because it takes time and energy to investigate and so the temptation is to bow to the ways of ease and convenience.  It is inconvenient to look for Truth so the mind set becomes, there is no absolute Truth so just do what’s there, do what feels right, and be satisfied.  With that mindset comes a disdain for those who disrupt the peace by trying to expose what is going on behind the curtain, what is not absolute Truth but only convenient and subjective; this people are labeled negative, naysayers, and dismissed or destroyed. Prophets of prosperity are easier on the ears than prophets of doom.  This world is being branded by the enemy of God and is being sold a boatload of goods that are in Truth, very bad.  They are cheap, artificial, without substance and are not sustainable.

I look for the Totos who fearlessly and simply pull back the curtain to the one controlling the levers, the one who yells loudly, “Pay no attention to the one behind the curtain.”  I listen for the voice of the little boy in the crowd who fearlessly and simply says, “The Emperor is wearing no clothes.” 

I choose to stand grounded and centered with my mind daily renewed in the Source, in God’s Word that reveals the Way, the Truth, and the Life.