Sleepwalkin'

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 2 - Rom 1:21-23 (NLT)

   
Jesus said, "I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me." - John 14:6 (THE MESSAGE)


     Several years ago I had the privilege to play my guitar for a friend’s wedding.  Most of the bride’s party were from California and were non-Christian --- at least, as far as true Christianity goes.  There were a lot of hybrid belief systems represented that included some bizarre amalgams of Western and Eastern collisions.  Unfortunately, I got caught in the crosshairs of a blended religious/political, liberal-venting rant that, considering the slightly inebriated source, was as pointless as the subject matter itself.  This supposed example of Napa Valley refinement in front of me began to spew references to G. W. Bush as “our local (effing) idiot;” and, in the same breath, professed to being a passionate Christian who believed in more than one way to the Father.  God help us.
     This conversation represents a scary percentage of our current culture.  So many people are buying into half-baked doctrines that are rooted in a premise that ultimately serves one purpose:  self-accommodation.  So many of us are more concerned with finding our way back to Eden than we are at finding the true fountain of life that only comes from self-sacrifice.  As a matter of fact, the mere mention of denying ourselves in any way is scorned as archaic, only fit for the unsophisticated, the uneducated, and the uncultured.  If there is a type of “fasting” implemented, it usually ends up being a selfishly motivated scheme that ultimately benefits the flesh in some way.
     The most alarming feature of this deception is the extreme sense of denial that it comes wrapped in.  The voice of reason never seems to cut through it.  I’ve looked right into the eyes of people swimming at the deep end of their fallacies, and what I’ve seen has disturbed me every time.  The false sense of security has profoundly anesthetized them into a counterfeit version of clarity, or “enlightenment,” that sort of resembles someone in the state of sleepwalking.  This is what resulted in a song worth writing.