Like a Child

We just finished with Spiritual Emphasis Week at BA.  We topped it off with a Christian Illusionist.  Now, I know what you’re thinking;  in a week where the guest speakers include Sean Tuohy, the father portrayed by Tim McGraw in “The Blind Side”, and Zac Sunderland, the youngest person to sail solo around the world, you might be tempted to write off an illusionist who goes by the name of “Harris III” as cheesy filler.

You would be wrong.

He started out the show with some simple tricks.  He then went into a great presentation about how deception works.  He told a little of his testimony, how he has performed on 5 continents and at the age of 18 was pulling down more scratch in a year than I will in 5, and how that lifestyle was deceptive.  He encouraged all of us to not trust what we see or hear or think, but to search for the Truth.  The deception comes in advertisements, messages from others, and Hollywood Lifestyles.  Not to knock any of our other speakers; it was a great week, but I think on a personal level I enjoyed this one the most.

I gained a slightly new look at 2 Corinthians 5:7, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.”  That doesn’t mean we don’t believe what we see.  That means that our senses, and our sensibilities (sorry Ms. Austen) can be deceived and we should have our skepticals on.

Harris III ended the show with an incredible illusion that we’ve all seen on TV, but was extremely impressive live.  It was Houdini’s Triple Escape where the magician and the assistant swap places inside handcuffs, inside a canvas bag, inside a padlocked crate..  What I found interesting, and why I titled this post what I did, was that as I listened to the conversation of the students and faculty as we left the gymnasium, it seemed that the younger kids were saying things like, “Wow”, “That was amazing!” and enjoying the mystery.  The older students and faculty were discussing how he did it.  I found myself in the latter group.

Then, I realized that I do that too much in other areas.  I get more caught up in explaining the mysteries like the duality of Christ, or the Triune God, or how an eternal God can die than I am in just saying “Wow.  That was amazing!”  That’s not to say that we cast doctrinal truth aside, or we stop digging for answers, but we shouldn’t let the academia of theology replace the wonder of Grace and Mercy.  It should enhance it.  Guilty.