The danger in denial Week 30, 2014

“There is no specific entity called the AIDS virus” so claimed a South African leader. “The symptoms you see can well be produced by a combination of malnutrition and chronic disease.” This claim was held despite the large body of evidence on the disease process. Sadly HIV/AIDS ravaged South Africa whilst the denial went on. At a point she had one of the fastest rates of acquisition of the very problem she denied. Denial is the refusal to acknowledge and accept an unpleasant reality. It shows up in diverse ways. It would be too painful to come to terms with reality, and so the world of pretense is entered into. “Let us pretend it never happened” is a common way of denial in some circles. A spouses’ alcoholism, a battering tendency, or a child’s substance abuse is passed off as “an occasional indiscretion” and so institutional help is not sought until it is too late. Problems denied never go away: they flourish.

Are you in denial? When we see the ordered universe, the complexity of the smallest living cell, and the exquisite beauty of nature and say “It all came by chance. There is no God.” We are in denial. Only a fool would say, "There is no God!" People like that are worthless; they are heartless and cruel and never do right Ps 14:1(CEV).

Some people are declared dead, no brain activity is found and yet after they revive they have memories of things that happened when they had no brain activity. Yet you argue “There is no life hereafter. Death ends it all” you say. You are definitely in denial. Even medical science now acknowledges there is a consciousness beyond brain activity. Your body came from the earth. And when you die, it will return to the earth. But your spirit came from God, and when you die, it will return to him Eccl 12:7(ERV).

Do you pretend all is well with you when actually you are searching for meaning in life? The recurrent wrong choices you make, the sins you commit, do you decide they are just human failings or worthy of judgment? If we say that we have not sinned, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth isn't in our hearts.  But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away 1Jn 1:8-9(CEV). 

Jesus gave Judas a chance to be cleansed from sin after he decided to betray the master. What was the response? A denial. Then Judas, who was going to betray him, asked, "Rabbi, I'm not the one, am I?" Jesus told him, "You have said so." Mat 26:25(ISV).  Are you also in denial?

Every disease ignored ravages the host. You may choose to ignore this warning, and claim it is for people worse off, or you may come to Jesus in humble submission. Then Jesus said, "I have come into this world to judge it, so that those who are blind may see and so that those who see may become blind." Some of the Pharisees … asked him, "We aren't blind, too, are we?" Jesus told them, "If you were blind, you would not have any sin. But now that you insist, 'We see,' your sin still exists." Jn 9:39-41(ISV).