Distorted Views
Imagine cruising the freeway in your 1962 Chrysler New Yorker when a car that looks just like yours comes up behind you. It has the same diagonal quad headlights and the same inverted trapezoidal grille. “It’s another 1962 New Yorker,” you say, and prepare to wave. Then the car passes you, because it’s actually a 1961 Chrysler 300G with the same “corporate face,” but a different body and the optional high-output 413 V8 with 400 horsepower. Another identical-looking car comes behind it, but this isn’t a 1962 New Yorker either – it’s a 1961 DeSoto, the final year for the automaker, which adopted Chrysler’s corporate face too. A third car quickly fills your rearview mirror – surely this is a 1961 New Yorker – but as it shows its finless taillights to you, you see that it’s the 1962 Chrysler 300H with its high-output 413 V8, now with 405 horsepower.
All of these cars had the same headlight arrangement and grille design. And while you certainly won’t mistake them for a Ford Explorer at night, you might get them confused in your rearview mirror. It’s hard to make the distinction.
A lot of things look alike, especially in the dark. A lot of bad decisions can be framed to look like good decisions. A lot of bad ideas feel good at the time (feelings are notoriously fickle). These thoughts and feelings are so powerful; they must be personalized to us specifically.
According to the Bible, they are. The bible describes Satan as the deceiver and the accuser. He uses deception and accusation together like a Hollywood prosecutor, lying and twisting the truth so you feel bad. In Zechariah’s prophecy, Israel is standing before God, preparing for judgment, with “Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!” (Zechariah 3:1-2)
This is Satan’s role. He reminds you of all the nastiness in your heart and convinces you that if you try to approach God, he will only punish you and judge you. It sounds believable, doesn’t it? After all, your brokenness and filth is no mystery to you.
But look again at God’s role. As often as the accuser reminds you of your failures, God reminds you that you are chosen by him. God calls Israel “a burning stick snatched from the fire,” (v. 2) rescued in its most helpless state by a God willing to risk everything for the people he loves.
If you dwell on the worst actions in your past, it feels like painful memories that continuously fill your rearview mirror. The shame and regret are unbearable. The mistakes are obvious – how could it be anything but your fault, and how could those negative consequences have been anything but God’s punishment?
Remember, memories are like cars in your rearview mirror: they can be deceiving. That shame from your past could just be temporary guilt that reminds you of how badly you need Jesus. Those negative consequences could have been God correcting your course to spare you from more pain. The embarrassment from your sin becoming public could become acceptance from community willing to love you and help pick you back up, and accountability to keep you from making the same mistakes again.
There’s no deception here. God hates failure as much as you do, but he loves you more than you can imagine. That’s the truth, and if it sounds different from those accusatory voices in your head, remember that you are chosen by God, and snatched from the fire by the work of Jesus on the cross and from the empty grave.
Big V8s in the Chrysler family started getting ram induction manifolds in 1960. Thirty inches of induction tubing – 30 inches! – crisscross the engine bay for a look that can only be MOPAR. A bunch of these engines look the same, but if someone tells you they all have the same horsepower, there’s an easy way to prove them wrong. Flex some of that power, and remind yourself that you don’t have to listen to the lies anymore.
