Confused

"We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.” -Jeremiah 44

Confusion is an interesting thing.  We get confused because we lose sight of the center, the core truths of our lives.  When we lose sight of center we redefine the things we see in our lives in a different way.  Without true center, without clarity on what is really happening and why, we make our own assumptions....we get confused.

This is what happened to Israel after the exile in the book of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah tells the people, "The Lord says stop worshipping other gods.  Your worship of them is why you are having problems now!"  Their response is in the text above.  Basically they had lost sight of center and so they concluded that because they had stopped worshipping idols their problems had come.  In fact it was just the opposite...it was BECAUSE they were worshipping idols that the problems had come.  They were confused, they had lost sight of center.

It happens to all of us.  I know you have experienced it at one time or another, a sense of confusion, a loss of center.  I remember clearly being in a forest and losing my direction.  I lost sight of landmarks and lost my bearing.  Soon I'm going in the wrong direction.  It's this loss of center that had confused the people of Israel and made them believe the very opposite of truth.  They had made the lie their new truth and lost their direction.  It cost them their lives.

We are in a culture that has lost its center. Because we have lost sight of the basic landmarks we are confused.  One person says this is true, another tells you the opposite, but both are lost and wandering.  

When we abandon center confusion follows, loss of direction is the result and lies become truth.  For the people of Israel in Jeremiah 44 their truth was a lie.  They refused to believe the prophet of God.  Their experiences told them the opposite was true, but when you have lost your center then any direction will do. A lie becomes truth.  We become confused.

How do we deal with confusion?  How do we sort through all the truth claims and once more find our direction?  To find our way we have to find center again.  It's found in God's word.  The bible is the only source that gives a roadmap for life and tells the truth about us.  When we dismiss God, his word and truth the only possible result is confusion.  Only by returning to the center will we find our direction.  Only when we return to God and his word will we deal a death blow to the confusion around us and once more find center.