Too good to be true and the dangers of 'Meism'

The art of advertising has been around for quite sometime now. Many a claim has and is made that promises to heal, cure or relieve us from one ailment or another.

Back in the day there were Pe-Ru-Na tablets that promised to cure the physical ailment of chronic catarrh. Today there's the claim that owning a luxury car will promise to cure us of a different kind of ailment, the lack of peace of mind. Never mind that the cures of the past tended to not do what they said they would. Or that that luxury car comes with a hefty price tag and that it is still a machine and will at one time or another leave us stranded on the side of the road. But good advertising has a way of convincing us the cure to what ails us is what the seller offers. But the old saying, "if it sounds to good to be true it probably is" still concerns us.

Currently there is an ailment that has been with us for a very long time. Only it's not a physical ailment but rather a spiritual one. I like to call it Meism. It's the doctrine, system, thinking and manner of living that we are the center of our own little universe. The symptoms include: thinking we can live a full life without God and that it's all about me. Other signs are: asking ourselves "what am I here for" and "is this all there is to life." Still more signs are shame, guilt and embarrassment. The difficulty in identifying the ailment is that we can appear full of life on the outside yet be spiritually dead on the inside. Culture tells us that God is our co-pilot, that we really are the captain of our own airplane. When in reality it is God who's in the left seat waiting for us to move over and take the right one. We are slow to recognize the symptoms and are hesitant to seek the cure. But just as pain motivates us to see the doctor so, too, does despair move us to look for answers for the ailment in our soul.

But God offers us a cure to what ails us. Some have seen the so-called cure in others and want nothing to do with it because of its hypocrisy. Some have heard of this cure and decided against it, though having never "tasted."

Imagine this conversation. "Doctor, I'm dead inside with no hope in sight." The Doctor says, " Here's the cure, but listen to this, the world and its religions say you must do, you must work at earning My love. But I say I accept you because of what I've already done. I've taken the cure for you. That is to pay the price, dying on the cross, for doubting Me, for you not wanting to trust Me." "The cure is to turn from your Meism to Heism by following My instructions. In order to be forgiven of all that turmoil inside you turn to Me and seek forgiveness."

Doctor to patient, "I love you already and the cure for your aching soul comes through faith in Jesus the Christ." Too good to be true? Religion says, yes, it is too good to be true, we need to work for peace with God. God says He's already done the work. When the symptoms of a "dead" soul become too much consider this, "Trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understandings. In all our ways acknowledge Him and He will direct our path." Proverbs 3:5-6

Bruce Macek is pastor at Newman Community Bible Church, 9230 Sagle Road, Sagle.