Truth or Fiction?

I find these days that with the every increasing availability of information there is so much knowledge out there right at our finger tips that the question of discerning whether it is fact or fiction becomes the real difference between simple knowledge and true wisdom.

Take the recent Presidential election in the United States between Obama and Romney; during the whole campaign we heard endless tidbits of information about their lives, opinions and believes and their own counter information telling you what the real story and real truth is. Then you had the media and other sources of information countering them yet again, unveiling what the REAL Real truth and facts are. And it continues in a never ending circle.

So how do you figure out what is truth and what is fiction? And more importantly, who gets to decide what information should even be shared and debated. I say this simply because even my spell check on this blog and my Microsoft Word knows the correct spelling of Obama and Romney, but for me to spell my own last name, Sweetnam, it marks it as an error. So someone has enough control over the information on the internet to make sure my spell check is up to date with the important information.

What exactly is my point? Is it just another conspiracy?

Perhaps a little, however in my book "The Gift", one of the important points I felt the need to address is  the issue of what information we as people are hearing and listening to; and whether the source of that information is trustworthy or not.

The main character, "Malachai", continually sees demons speaking to people, whispering in their ears, directing them towards trouble and even possessing people to control them while influencing others. The book itself may be a work of fiction, but does it mean that every thought and word written within it are just a work of fiction as well? Absolutely not. In fact much of what The Gift is about is based on truth, however, in order to make it more acceptable to be read and understood, it needed to be put as fiction. So I, as the author, had to control the information written within the book to make it more appealing to the audience I wish to read it.

Naturally this is nothing unusual or uncommon. Every writer does it. Whether for books, poems, advertising, plays, movies, news programs, Presidential speeches, campaign slamming or even blogging; everyone who writes has a certain opinion, perspective and audience they take into account when they write. The result is the controlling of information in order to gain a desired result by their audience.

So the real questions should be, who is controlling the larger tidbits of information; what is their desired result; and is it truth, fiction or a little of both?

I hear many Christians talk about the end of the world and the battle in the last days before our total destruction. And even though they have much information and research backing up this belief, I have also heard much information and research that says the earth won't be destroyed. So much of what is being said is interpreted by each individual's personal beliefs.

I myself believe that we are very much in the midst of a spiritual war and that this battle is heating up once again to an intense war in the spiritual realm all of which will heavily impact us. However, my caution is with the information that is being spread these days and by whom.

If Malachai's ability is to see the demons influences on others and ultimately their control over people and information; and we as spiritual beings are in the midst of an intense spiritual war, then who or what is influencing those who control the information being spread to the mass populations and what do they want;  is it trustworthy?

There is an old quote that states, "He who controls the information, has the power." This has reigned true throughout the years. What would happen though if all of us could see the spiritual realm like Malachai does and actually see the spirits both good and evil, that are influencing everyone around the world. My personal belief is that those spirits would lose a lot of power because they could no longer work in secret and could be held accountable for what they are really saying and doing. We would each be able to make more informed decisions because we would be able to see what information is actually true and what is being twisted to simply look like truth.

Perhaps this is what Midnight, the main demon in The Gift, is really trying to fight; the thought that Malachai might just discover what these demons really want and then convince others to learn the truth just the same. Then they would lose the control and power.

The Joy in Halloween and Christmas

I am truly amazed sometimes as to just how busy life can be. With all the good intentions of wanting to keep up with all the daily tasks that need to be done, life just seems to slip by quickly and before we know it days and even weeks have passed. There are times that  I long for 48 hour days in order to just catch up a little, but then I would probably just find even more to do. So I guess the answer is to make sure that the things we busy our selves with also add some enjoyment to our lives so we feel that the life we are living is worthwhile.

I adopt this attitude with most of what I do and try hard to find what is good in everything and everyone, and it's not always easy, but it does help me look at every situation with a little more openness.

Take Halloween for example; as a Christian, youth pastor, dad, retail business owner and author of a book discussing demons, angels and the spirit realm; Halloween itself holds many conflicts of beliefs that others feel I should have some big problems with; and yet I don't. My attitude towards Halloween becomes a continual discussion to many of my customers, readers and Christian friends, because they all know that I have a strong faith in God and very much live a life reflecting what Jesus teaches, yet I still sell Halloween stuff, decorate my house in a comedy style and let my family dress up to enjoy the evening.

What's hard to explain to others though is the idea that for me the spiritual world exists every day of the entire year, not just the one night of Halloween. Ghosts, demons, spirits, and all the rest don't simply appear the one night of the year that people dress like them, they exist always. But for the short period before halloween, people get excited about life and have a little fun. Most are not celebrating the day of the dead, they are just trying to find a little enjoyment in life and an excuse to eat some candy.

It's kind of like Christmas and us celebrating Jesus birth; Jesus exists every other day too and the idea of loving one another and sharing hope and joy, should also happen year round. However, people get so busy with their own lives the rest of the year that it takes Christmas to remind us to think of each other and take the time to spend with each other because life is short and we all need to enjoy some of it.

So if the point is take the time to find some true happiness and spend time with others, then does it matter whether we dress up in halloween costumes or in Mary, Joseph, shepherd and wise man costumes. Instead we should be focusing on the things that encourage people to find hope, joy and friendship; all of which looks for what is good in others rather than what is wrong with them. I will admit that I am not a fan of how some of the partying around both holidays leads to drunkeness and excessive behaviors that only cause more separation, problems and loneliness; but most of the time people find some encouragement if they don't give in to such excessiveness.

As I have mentioned before the spiritual world exists all around us whether we believe it or not and every day of the year. And there are certain times of the year like Halloween that this activity seems closer then other times, simply because more people are focusing on it and believing in it. All that really changes is that people turn their focus onto the Joys and expenses of Christmas instead. The same spirits are still there, but they just don't receive the same attention, and perhaps end up working a bit harder to get some of the attention back. Which is often done by reminding people of what they don't have, how lonely their life is or perhaps what things they really deserve. Then of course people become frustrated, angry and bitter rather then taking time to find friendship, happiness and fun.

Perhaps what each of these holiday's come down to can be found in the simple understanding of what we personally choose to allow to influence us. We can allow other people to bring us down and frustrate us with their own expectations and hang-ups; or we can see them as people who are maybe lonely and hurting that may possibly need something to make them laugh and have a little fun. So maybe we can be the one to help them smile by choosing to look for what is good and joyful about every situation.

We can also choose to allow the spirits and demons to influence us negatively, bringing us down, frustrated, jealous and even using us to affect others negatively. Or we can pay attention to the thoughts that seem to be whispered into our ears and planted in our dreams that then frustrate, or make us feel angry, lonely or worthless. Then we can learn to combat those whispers and stop letting them influence us, by looking for what is good and purposefully spending our time and energy to build the friendships we are looking for and find what is good and worthy within ourselves.

Perhaps if we could all look at life this way we could see an incredible change throughout the world.

Just a thought anyways.