Mom is a natural redhead (some years more natural than others). Jan, born three years before me, had nearly white hair, as did our younger sister, Rhonda, and our baby brother, Kevin. Their genetically perfect blonde heads seared the words “black sheep” all over me and my personality. Never mind that my hair was the same shade of dark brown as Dad’s.

Jan was old enough to know better when she conspired to convince me I was an adopted child. She explained, without the benefit of having completed third grade science,
“When a brunette and a redhead marry, their babies are always blonde.”
While her logic was flawed on so many levels, the examples she provided and her presentation were adequate for my five year old sensibilities.

It wasn’t long before a stark example demonstrated the error in Jan’s theory. Either she was misinformed or she had lied to me. I suspected the latter and brought my discovery to the dinner table, expecting a little drama. Mom and Dad accepted her weak apology for “teasing,” and (based on my judgment as a 5 year-old) they offered equally weak reassurance that I was their natural child.

When Jan pointed out my genetically distinctive personality and legs, common on Dad’s side of the family, everyone laughed, except me. No one verbalized it, but I knew if my parents were to have adopted, they would have selected the most pleasing of all orphaned baby girls, and she would have been a blonde.

This story says more about my own insecurities than anything else. It wasn’t funny then, but now that I’m grown, with children and grandchildren, I can laugh about how gullible I was. Thankfully, Jan’s scam only lasted a week or two, and as far as big sister antics go, that was probably the worst of hers. No harm. No foul.

But it causes me to wonder. How many other scams have I been gullible enough to believe?

You’re not good enough. You’re not smart enough. You can’t. What’s the use? Who cares? Don’t waste your time. Forget about it. Don’t risk it. That’s for someone else, not you. My list goes on.

I know I have selective hearing, listening to some lies more often than others, because some of those lies have been echoing in my brain long enough to have settled into my heart, and bleed out into my attitude and choices. I’m used to them. They have become a part of me.

Have you ever known someone to repeat a lie so many times they actually begin to believe it? Maybe it’s a lie intended to avoid negative consequences or gain something they haven’t earned, and you know it’s a lie, but you listen anyway. Seems harmless. But recently, I caught myself repeating what someone else had said, even though I knew it was a lie when they said it. Again, it seemed harmless. It wasn’t, and neither are the lies of Satan we hear every day.

The lies that Satan uses are intended to make us think we are avoiding negative consequences. He wants us to believe we can cheat to get something we don’t deserve. Adam and Eve took the first bite because they listened to one of Satan’s lies. The awful part of listening to a lie is that we miss out on the blessings of truth.

Truth is…sometimes I’m not good enough, or smart enough, and I can’t, but God can. Sometimes there seems to be no point, but God has a plan. Or I’m sure no one cares, yet I feel God’s urging. Maybe I should finish that project, because to quit would be to believe a lie and accept defeat. I know not to put on blinders, or plug my ears, but to calculate the risk, then trust God. Every believer has a skill or ability that God wants to use, and a unique way that God wants to use it, but Satan wants to distract.

Okay, here’s another truth…I probably am too old for gymnastics or soccer, but Satan would have me believe that I’m too old, and it’s too late to accomplish anything worthwhile. No so! He’d like me to feel that if I can’t be the best, or at least make it to the awards podium, that I shouldn’t bother trying. What a liar!

Here’s another lie, one of his craftiest: If I don’t do it, no one will, or it won’t be done right.

Ouch! Please tell me I’m not the only one who’s repeated that lie so often I believed it to be true. I don’t know all the details yet, but now that a few of Satan’s lies have been exposed, I can hear God calling me to something new or different, and better. Something perfectly fitted to the “black sheep” image He gave me.

Would you be willing to consider these 3 things?
1. If you’re in a rut, get out of it. You might be in someone else’s dream job. And blocking them from the passing lane doesn’t mean you’re getting anywhere.
2. Be a mentor or a Paul for a young and eager Timothy. If the thought of training your successor makes you roll your eyes or grumble, you might be believing a lie.
3. If you’re not willing to accept the hardest or lowliest of the duties required to carry on a ministry, you only think you’re serving people through that ministry, but the ministry is actually serving you.

I John 2:26-28 says:
I’ve written to warn you about those who are trying to deceive you. But they’re no match for what is embedded deeply within you—Christ’s anointing, no less! You don’t need any of their so-called teaching. Christ’s anointing teaches you the truth on everything you need to know about yourself and him, uncontaminated by a single lie. Live deeply in what you were taught. And now, children, stay in Christ. Live deeply in Christ. Then we’ll be ready for him when he appears, ready to receive him with open arms, with no cause for red-faced guilt or lame excuses when He arrives. (The Message)