**CROSSPOST** The Biggest Distraction

Everyone is aware that the world seems to be more in turmoil lately. Maybe because the worst turmoil is in a place that was once the icon of Western stability - the USA. Initially, I wanted to blame politics and its bad actors, but now I'm thinking we are all to blame. Everything has become so performative. That was only mildly annoying when it was to do with social media - you know, with everyone become an 'influencer' of some sort. I thought it was just another social/cultural phase when people went from simple YouTubing - being serious, being too sharing, being outrageous, being silly, etc. - to making it a lifestyle. Everyone was suddenly a 'content creator'. There were parents putting their family life (for better or for worse) on display. Every day it seemed there was a new family of some specific number in a house, van, or on the road. It wasn't enough to showcase details of the latest mystery or gossip or story, but some people decided to do it all while applying makeup or doing their hair.

I was only annoyed when all the creating and influencing and showboating was to do with meaningless media, but then the shift came for the news. Not that I ever fully trusted the news to be unbiased or untainted by hidden manipulation, but when it became so obviously and purposefully performative...

Every newsperson (I don't know what else to call them) became their own media character. You had your left-wingers, right-wingers, and swing-wingers. There was the highly educated and the questionably educated and so on. I am pretty sure that whoever it is that does manipulate society has a casting department. When the networks need a Rachel Maddow, Greg Gutfeld, or Don Lemon, I imagine a meeting of shadowy people who send out a request to other shadowy people. Suddenly, *we the people/viewers* have a new face to focus on; someone relatable to represent all our frustrations and energy.

What I wonder is if there really are any significant numbers of people left who know their way around the information minefield that is the "news". Does anyone still think critically enough to know that there is really no longer "news" but instead just "approved propaganda"?

The thing is, that this is happening doesn't bother me in the way someone might think. I know that this is what it was all coming down to. Man has been playing to his own destruction since Adam and Eve messed up in the Garden. 

Everything - from the beginning - has been a war. "We the people" have always been the prize. We were never in control of society or culture. The only control we've ever had is over our personal choices.  Everything outside of that is part of the many battles in this war. The only way to win - and we can only win or lose for ourselves - is the make the right choice.

Every struggle and triumph in a person's life are just cobblestones in their whole walk, and everyone will influence that all-important choice. In the end of it all, it's not going to matter how wealthy or poor, healthy or not; no matter what you look like or what talent you have or don't have; what friends and connections you do or don't have. All that is going to matter is the choices you made that led to the most important choice.

There won't be anyone counting their money in Heaven or Hell. No one is going to care that you did or didn't achieve whatever success in your mortal life. Your mortal self won't matter in your immortal eternity. 

So, all this worldly, human STUFF is just distraction to keep your eye from seeing what the shadowy manipulators are doing. They don't want you to see your way to Jesus. They know that if you see the Messiah, he will be your way to God. 

Don't be distracted. Don't let the good or the bad of this world keep you away from eternal salvation.

Peace

--Free

"The more I study science, the more I believe in God." — Albert Einstein