You never think it will happen to you, but then it does. I’ve watched numerous news stories about how scammers operate. So I know not to answer unsolicited texts from people I don’t know.

I’ve seen how scammers will try to get you to believe that you have to give them your information or you will lose all your money. Or that if you don’t make a quick decision, you will miss out on something that will make your life great.

Scammers continue to get more and more sophisticated. No longer are Nigerian Princes the subject of their emails. Now they look like a friend, bank, or even a grandchild who is in trouble and needs help.

I know all their tricks, yet I was scammed. The worst part of it is this: It was going on for years, right under my nose, and I had no idea.

What’s even more surprising is I was warned. Jesus told me that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10), but I let it happen.

The one who scammed me was more subtle than I thought he would be. It wasn’t a frontal attack. Maybe I could have fended that off. No.

Instead, he convinced me that I was missing out. I believed there was something I needed, and that the only way to get it was to take matters into my own hands.

Dr. Fr. Adrian van Kaam, the founder of Formation Science, says the pride form is a counterfeit form of life. God has formed everything in the cosmos. Most things allow God’s formation to happen. We, however, have a choice.

That choice is illustrated in the account of Adam and Eve. They were created and formed in love. God created them in his image. He breathed life into them. He gave them freedom to choose.

Then the Scammer came. He convinced them that they could have more without God than with Him. They believed him and chose to step outside of God’s care and control.

The forming life form was deformed. The pride form started taking shape. It wanted God out of the center of formation.

Since that time, we have all been scammed. When we choose to follow our own plans, believing we can get what we want outside of God’s care, when we believe God is holding out on us, whenever we choose sin, the enemy is slow, but surely, doing his work.

God continues to call us out of this darkness. Jesus came, died, and rose again. Now we can choose to be formed in God’s love, allowing the Christ form to reform us and transform us.

Jesus pointed out who the true scammer was. Over the years, he has tried different techniques and methods, but the results are always the same. The Good News is that we are wise to his tricks, or at least most of them.

We may fall for his deceptions from time to time, but that is not the end of the story. We know where life truly is. When we keep our eyes fixed on the One who truly gives life, we discover joy, hope, love, and a peace that no one can scam from us.

Peace,

David.

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