Pull back the curtain/remove the veil/perceive what is shrouded/whether rose-colored, bloodied, or both?? Often clouded, with our head in the clouds, or constantly groping around in the fog below ...our path of vision is pre-programmed in our brains to a degree that denial is an acceptable truth, and truth has its claim in absurdity.

I once attended a workplace diversity in-service ...and they gave us something called The Island Scenario.

I didn't like it much, not because I'm against diversity, but because I'm against immorality ...and don't like being a part of it.  Yet, I kind of felt the purpose of the in-service was to make us aware of differences, and that in spite of those differences, as a group, we often had to come together to make decisions and what often would be decided upon may not be our idea of the right thing.

I'm not going to get into details at this time, though I likely did in another blog ...but let me just say that there was a shipwreck and five people had to find out if they all survived, and then had to attempt to continue to survive.  In short, they had to get along as a small group ...or you'd think that was the preferred way.

Among the five, was a young adult girl and her Mom.  And the young girl asked her Mom for advice on something, to which Mom replied, "Do what is in your heart."

This kind of reminds me on the Book of Judges, where the people "did that which was right in his own eyes."

And part of the Book of Judges ...is the account of Gideon.

Preparing for battle, 32,000 people stood somewhat ready ...and somewhat willing.

Chapter 7, of the Book of Judges, gives a slightly unusual approach to what most people would view as standing ready for battle ...that the people preparing for battle were too many.

God's reasoning was that He didn't want the people to think that their own hand saved them.

Many times people get set to do what they know they have to do, though they don't really want to do it.  And sometimes being a bit afraid is perhaps a bit more wise than having too much confidence with something we should not feel to comfortable with.

Anyway, we're told that those who were a bit afraid were told they could go home ...which left 10,000 people, but God still viewed that as too many.  

The next part has been part of sermons, and on more than one occasion I've heard similar to this: "The explanation for why Gideon was to keep the men who drank out of their hands was that they were the alert ones, who were always looking around and constantly aware of what was going on."

I tried to be alert in reading it, but when I thought one thing, the next verse had me thinking that maybe I wasn't viewing it as correctly as I had thought.  It says that those who lapped water with his tongue, as a dog, were one group ...and the others bow down on their knees to drink, are the other group. The very next verse says that those that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth ...were 300 men.

Now, I don't know of any dogs who put a hand, or paw, to their mouth to lap the water.  And if I were going to act like a dog, by the mere fact that my legs would extend too far, unless I was on my knees (and hands, or hands & knees) ...then as a dog my head would drop down to the water to lap with my tongue.

So, I tried to be alert with reading it, and now I am going to try to be alert in reasoning it.  The point is, it doesn't matter so much how we interpret that part.  If you think it does and you have much excess energy to dispute it with me ...then perhaps you too can practice keeping in shape by going to your nearest school and taking a couple laps around the track.

Back to the main point, that I so often find it difficult focusing on ...they didn't need to be good soldiers, or the very best men at alertness. God was going to win the battle for them, and they wouldn't even be expected to fight at all.  The point is, they were to be alert to God, and what He was doing.

I don't really know, but maybe the 300 were chosen to be taught some humbleness ...as it may likely be short term humbleness, then they'd brag about it to those who'd gone home, only this time they'd perhaps brag about how great God took care of it.

Most of us call that ...glorifying God.

God is great ...so, all we have to do is give a correct description of who He is and what He does, and that's glorifying Him.

So, the real focus here ...is that we should not perceive with our emotions, which are forever changing.

So much of our society strives for change that represents in some way how people feel, as an acknowledgment of validating the importance of those who somehow must not feel what they are saying they feel.  In short, they are definitely feeling something, but it seems often a bit misdirected if they don't truly understand the high value with which God places upon each and every one of us.

The Book of Jeremiah, says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

What then can we trust??

I believe in God ...as he is revealed to us in the Bible. I believe in the Person of God, and that I can trust God's heart.  And by that, I am not saying a cardiac organ or function.  It's more a matter of our mind ...which reaches out to the love that is God.