Daily Devotional

One of my favorite TV shows is “The Carbonaro Effect”. It’s a hidden camera, magic, TV show. The setting is usually a store, and the host, Michael Cabanaro, is behind a counter selling something. He takes an ordinary product and while he’s demonstrating what the product does, he makes it do the impossible. A bottle of wine comes out of a bag of chips, a mouse drops out of a batting helmet, a dead cat comes to life. He’s a magician. While it’s funny seeing the reaction of the people as they witness the impossible, it’s even funnier listening to the explanation Michael gives. He confidently explains away the impossible with words that if you think about them, make no sense. Most of the time people are not convinced. They just keep saying “How did that happen?” Then at the end of each trick, he tells the person he’s a magician and what they’ve just seen was a trick. It wasn’t real.

Sometimes we do the same thing. We don’t do magic, but we do try to convince people of things that are not real. Like when I’m having a terrible day and someone comes up to me and says, “How are you doing?” And I say “I’m fine.” Why do I do that? Maybe I don’t know the person well enough to tell them what’s really going on. Or I don’t want anyone to know I struggle. Or I don’t feel like talking about it.

Believe it or not, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with answering the ‘How are you?’ question with ‘I’m fine’. You might say, “Yeah, but you’re not being authentic.” And you’re right. You’re playing a trick on the person, convincing them you’re okay when you’re not.

But, let’s be real. In our culture today we use the “How are you?” question as a greeting. When you walk into a classroom on the first day of school and say to someone, “How’s it going?”, you don’t expect the person to start going into every detail of why they’re having a lousy day. You just expect them to say, “I’m fine, how are you?” And when we understand “How are you?” as a greeting, then “Fine” is a real answer to the question.

But the real question is, do you have someone you can be real with? If you’re really struggling, do you have a parent or grandparent, friend or pastor you can call; someone who knows you? They know your faults. They know your past mistakes; even some of your sins. You’ve got a close relationship with some history. Do you have someone like that in your life? I hope so.

On June 27th, 2022 I commenced from a recovery program called Re:generation. This program went for about a year. I had the opportunity to share the story of my past sin struggles with a group of 12 other men who had similar struggles. We applied God’s Word. We encouraged and prayed for each other. We supported each other as we grew in our faith. And when I’m really struggling, I could call any one of these men and they would have a listening ear, a non-judgmental spirit, and a word of loving exhortation from the Bible. And I could trust them. We spent a year being real with each other.  Re:generation was a game changer for me.

On Tuesday nights starting January 17th, 2023 we will be starting our next Re:generation session here at Campus Bible. If you are tired of being fake and are ready to be real; if you’re tired of saying you’re fine when you’re not; come and check out Re:generation. God will use this Christ-centered curriculum to change your life as you grow closer to Him.

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” James 5:16 (NASB)

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