9.4.2020.
Fear-inspired messages roam the country in abundance.
What’s worse, they are often followed up with “I or we have confirmed this,” to add validity to the correspondence.
The last one I received definitely broke my peace and irritated me.
I knew the fear-inspired message was untrue, but because of my own imagination, it twisted my thoughts toward potential horrific scenarios.
It spoke of ‘900 people dying a day’ and how it would be babies, children, essentially everyone.
When measuring information of any kind, I use a very simple system.
The system is a mental image in my mind, that was created quite naturally after I digested the verse:
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” (2 Cor 10:5).
It allows me a very simple filter, like a doorway with Christ as the security door supervisor.
These are the questions Christ asks:
Is the information rooted in Holiness or not?
Is it from humility or pride?
Is it from love or fear?
Will it be productive or destructive?
Is it selfless or selfish?
That’s the fundamentals of my current system.
It surprises me that people actually trust the mainstream media too…
In this experience, one must execute all manner of wisdom gained throughout life to discern their steps.
The Bible is perfectly applicable to this scenario as it is to every challenge in life.
You just have to know how to listen and what to look for in the Scriptures…
(14) Exhibiting un-learned humility
1997 – 1998. Age Fourteen.
Reaching middle school of my Secondary education, I began to form strong views of who I wanted to be.
English Literature, Latin, History, and Religious Studies were a great influence in this regard.
I grew a fascination for the distinction between right and wrong as well as a desire for Truth.
There had been too much physical fighting in my Primary School days.
In my Secondary School where fighting was punished with detention, suspension, or expulsion, I’d still managed to have more confrontations than the average pupil, though fortunately, I only found myself in one double detention and one Saturday detention in my entire school record.
Now, I was calming down.
I recall an incident with a boy who’d harassed me excessively; I’m talking a constant barrage of belittling and viciously dangerous insults. He’d humiliated me on more counts than I’d usually allow.
I dreamt of this boy crossing the line with physical contact, granting me the right to put some serious punishment upon his torso; I say specifically the torso, because I’d learned in previous years that the face of a Caucasian boy bruised visibly.
One day, I got my wish.
After an annoying drama lesson where the boy had continued his usual antagonistic behaviour, I used my innate skills in psychology, becoming an agent of provocation.
Up to this point, I’d permitted his mocking, but I decided to really confuse his mind.
I said a few things that I sensed would throw him over the edge and he buckled right over the cliff.
During a 5-minute break before the next school period, he picked up a stool and hit me with it.
The entire class waited for the inevitable:
This boy was going to receive a beating from Stephen France.
But I didn’t.
I relented.
Something in me told me: I’d crossed the line.
I’d used powers I should never use.
I’d played on a weakness I’d spotted in him and hurt him deeply.
The boy must have been so surprised that I didn’t beat him into the next year.
Subsequently, it didn’t stop him continuing his cruel behaviour for years with his crew of friends.
The last time I saw him was at a University nightclub event that I visited in London around 2004.
He looked at me sheepishly, suppressing a nervous grin, but we didn’t speak.
Sometimes I think of it; I wonder – what really stopped me from taking the revenge I’d been longing for after he’d struck me with a stool?
Message from Jesus – ” – ”
Message from the World – “Keep getting stronger, mentally and physically.”
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