“We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

My first reaction: “Cool quote!”  Then I started to process it on a deeper level and realized that it isn’t 100% true.  

Yes, sometimes the most dangerous form of deception is the way we deceive ourselves.  But as true as that is, it certainly doesn’t mean that we are “never deceived” by anything else.

Unfortunately, we have a deceiver.  He Hates you.  He wants to steal, kill, and destroy you.  And for every single part of God’s plan for your life, he offers a counterfeit.  You’ve bought the counterfeit before.  So have I.  And so has everyone else since the beginning of time.

If we only deceived ourselves, Satan wouldn’t exist.  Eve wouldn’t have talked to a snake.  And the examples go on and on.  But every story has a villain, including yours, and “lying is his native tongue.” (John 8:44)

Satan deceived, and continued to infiltrate entire cultures through self-destructing systems, built on lies and counterfeit illusions.  And yes, after we were deceived, and now that we are deceived, we often deceive ourselves…without any help at all.

How about you?  Do you find that you often deceive yourself?  Or are you more often manipulated by someone or something around you?

First of all, I have admit that I haven’t studied this passage of scripture in it’s original text, nor have I read any commentary on it.  This is very surface level thinking.

Second, I must confess that part of my thoughts regarding this could be that I’m annoyed by all of the misconceptions surrounding the “devil,” and how it is that he supposedly operates in the world.  But I’ll save that for another post.  Instead, let me simply ask: What if Satan operates this way? If it’s a great way to gain influence, which also happens to be Satan’s ultimate goal, why not use the same strategy, and “be all things to all men”?

As you look around the world, you see different cultures with different issues.  People often wonder why some countries have a high amount of “supernatural activity,” while others simply struggle with poverty, while others seem to have an absence of all spirituality and just seem filled with pride.

I wonder if Satan plays into the supernatural superstitions of some cultures, while playing to the pride of others.  It seems to me, it’d be pretty successful.  Or maybe it already is.  Hmmm….

It’s a simple thought, yet I’m not sure we view it this way very often.  Just thinking out loud…what do you think?