Convinced

How much harder is it to day to convince people that what they are seeing is real?

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean. Then they asked him, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" He said to them, "Elijah is indeed coming first to restore all things. How then is it written about the Son of Man, that he is to go through many sufferings and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written about him." - Mark 9:2-13

Nothing beats what we witness in person, with our own eyes and ears.  But even then, we can doubt.

In the age of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Generated Special Effects, we almost need to be present at the actual event to believe it is real.

I can imagine James and John looking at each other and shaking their heads, wondering if what they just experienced was real, while Peter jumped in with both feet.

Maybe this is why Jesus came when he did.  He knew we would muddy the water, making it harder to separate fact from fiction in our world.

It takes a lot to be convinced, unless you come to the experience already convinced you know what you are seeing and hearing.

In an age where everything is recorded and available for playback, a good editor can make any story seem real.

We live in a storyteller's dream world and we are all the audience, taking in what the writer's spin.

So, the only time you could have believed in miracles was before illusion became reality.

The bar has been raised so high, no one can get over it, so nothing is real anymore.

If we are all left to believe whatever someone spins as truth, how will we ever know for sure?

I, for one, find myself questioning everything I see on the news.

Maybe that's a good thing.  But where do we go from here?

More to come...