Let Me Entertain You
Entertainment is a brief relief from the pressures of our world, and our pursuit of a happy ending. We demand a happy ending. And the industry emotionally manipulates that need to keep us engaged as consumers. We want to be loved and we consume sappy love stories to experience it. And they use sad music and desperate circumstances to ask us for money because the happy ending depends upon our donation. Sick children or starving puppies, it is blatant emotional manipulation.
Our entertainment industry tells us what to buy, what will make us attractive and successful, what will make us healthy, what will make us feel better, what makes life easier, and what will make us happy. But we must keep watching. And we do. It doesn’t feel like manipulation and deception. But what does that feel like? The system only works as we consume it. How can we tell who is being dishonest and when we are being played? Discerning the real intentions is very difficult.
Jesus gave us the solution. He said we can tell by the fruit. In fact, he said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inward are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matt 7:15) Wolves eat sheep. Jesus called us sheep. If the wolves dress as sheep, what fruit will separate the sheep from the wolves? Humility is one. The humble will recognize and defend those who have little if any influence or visible significance. Wolves have little regard for people they consider beneath them. Are they speaking down to you or treat you as an equal? Do you feel free in their presence or oppressed? Are people in the wake of their life blessed by them or damaged? If Jesus came to liberate the captives, wolves would be working to keep them captive or recapture them.
Do not be deceived by the wolves in the media using every method to set fire to your emotions in the effort to subdue you once again to the lies of the enemy. This is especially true of the political narratives. We were given a government system in which the principles revealed to us in the Bible operate.
Many claim that religion and politics have little or nothing to do with each other. Yet The Declaration of Independence was the beginning of a system of government rejecting the governing wolf (King George III) and claiming the God given rights of all people, from the highest to the lowest of station. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women) are created equal.” (They called it liberty!) We can only co-exist in equality governed by humility. Pride and arrogance cannot tolerate equality, it will quickly suffocate humility, and with all good and grand intentions, will never rest until the liberated have been re-captured.
We have believed we are small and have no voice. Just vote and give money! This is a lie. We must learn and practice liberty if we are to escape the wolves. Pay attention to the entertainment if you want to remain free.