Wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square. She calls out to the crowds along the main street, and to those in front of city hall. “You simpletons!” she cries. “How long will you go on being simpleminded? How long will you mockers relish your mocking? How long will you fools fight the facts? Come here and listen to me! I’ll pour out the spirit of wisdom upon you and make you wise. “I called you so often, but you didn’t come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention.” (Proverbs 1:20-24)

    He’s already a hit with David Letterman and Jay Leno. I can see him as a cult hero on Saturday Night Live. Mohammed Saeed al — Sahaf held the prestigious title “Minister of Information” for the late regime of Saddam Hussein.

    People around the world got comic relief during daily news reports about military incursions, firefights, aircraft sorties, prisoner rescue, and the like. He is the guy in the beret who stood before banks of microphones to defy reality day after day! As the world watched on split — screen television, he flatly denied that the things we were seeing were happening!

    As American and British forces rushed toward Baghdad, Sahaf assured the world that there were no coalition forces inside the borders of Iraq.

    When troops were securing the main airport of Baghdad, he explained — with grand sweeping hand gestures — how the courageous Republican Guard had surrounded, killed, and swept the invaders from the airport area.

Then I realized that he looked familiar...

    As soldiers encircled the city, Sahaf declared, “The infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad.”

    With American tanks only a few hundred meters from his perch at a hotel in Baghdad, he confidently boasted that the “ignorant imperialists, losers, and fools” were being beaten back and destroyed in every engagement with Iraqi fighters.

    I watched his performances — alternately perplexed and amused. Then I realized that he looked familiar. I’ve met him before!

    Lots of people in my world refuse to see the reality everyone else around them knows. An alcoholic thinks nobody knows he’s drowning in the bottle. Parents pretend their rebellious children are only “trying their wings.” A man and woman whose marriage died years ago keep going through the motions. A bankrupt business prints new letterhead. A dead church holds Sunday service.

    It’s called denial. It is one’s absolute refusal to face reality, to deal with the truth. It is the absurd creation of a counterfeit and illusory world in an effort to avoid facing some unpleasant truth. And it doesn’t change reality!

    Take a searching spiritual inventory of your life today. How honest are you being about your relationship with God? Your family? Your own heart?

    The first step toward God is integrity. And the cruelest lies are the ones we tell ourselves in order to conceal the truth of how desperately we need him.

 

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© 2003, Rubel Shelly. Used by permission. From Rubel Shelly's "FAX of Life" printed each Tuesday. See Faith Matters for previous issues of the "FAX of Life."

Title: "The Minister of Information"
Author: Rubel Shelly
Publication Date: April 15, 2003