Just some thoughts...

ANIMISM: the belief in impersonal spiritual forces (can be animate or inanimate objects - rivers, wind, rocks, trees, pixie dust) that can be manipulated through ritual, taboos, spells -- can be used for beneficial or non-beneficial purposes;

and the belief in personal spiritual beings that need to be appeased for various reasons, often called ancestor worship.

Sanguma, sorcery, witchcraft, magic, witchdoctors, shamans, ritual, taboos, spirits, superstition are some of the terms within animism.

Secular does not exist...all is spiritual.

This is an extremely simplistic (and poor) definition of animism, I'm afraid.

Animism is usually attributed to "low societies" and "primitive" peoples.

It is deep and complicated, and I don't fancy myself as having much of an understanding at all, but it is thoroughly embedded in the societies of PNG and it exists all around us...

which has given me much food for thought.

One of the most disturbing discoveries for me has been the awareness of just how prevalent animism is in my own culture in the so called 'civilized' world of America, and in my own thinking. 'Can't see the forest for the trees' would be an applicable figure of speech.

We bandy about the word 'luck' with familiarity and ease as if it is some random spiritual force that may or may not fall out of the sky and land on a 'special' person of its choosing - we can manipulate the luck to choose us if we say a special prayer and send that email off within 7 minutes...to 12 people!...

or will win the slot machine jackpot if I rub the tummy of the jade monkey on the screen...

if I just do "this" or just say "that" then bad [or good] things won't [or will] happen...

"It's just not in the cards for me..."

"Knock on wood!"

We sneak a peek at our horoscope (and hope no one sees) in hopes that there just might be something there to give us some guidance because we're afraid of the future...surely there's some spiritual force within the alignment of the stars...and the various newspapers and magazines all say something different on the same day, but that fact does not seem to register...

I could go on but for the sake of brevity I think you get the idea.

Deception deceives.

For Christians, we say that we believe in the one triune God the Father, His son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit...

We say we trust His work in our lives...

and in His work and guidance on our behalf...

His great love for us and His desire for relationship with us...

We say we're safe, secure, all is well...

We say we believe the Bible to be the inerrant and inspired Word of Truth, given by God to the human race as a necessity because we've lost our way...

yet we're fearful, we're anxious, we're angry, we have fractured and broken relationships, we're in bondage to our emotions...

we're driven by Madison Avenue and Hollywood.

Yet we live in many of the things God says He has freed us from.

Now I can't speak for anyone but myself. I have to admit that much of my Christian life has been lived more like a functioning atheist than a believer in the one True God, who says His heart is for me, not against me.

But praise be to His Name! He is in the business of opening the blind eyes, softening the hard heart, unstopping the deaf ears and delivering from deception.

In one of my conversations with a tribal missionary, it was brought out that you can tell whether or not the Word of God has taken hold, not by what the tribal folks say, but what they do when a crisis hits.

Will they revert to the deeply embedded old ways of solving their problems? Will they resort to sorcery? Will they 'manipulate' the spiritual forces through ritual, taboo, etc? Or will they "tie their thoughts to the Word of God?"

Am I any different? I think not.

So often our thoughts are on a long tether and we're blown about and we struggle and we question and we're miserable and wonder where the answers are. We need to learn to think about what we're thinking about and if our thinkings are not tied tightly to the Truth of the Word, then, by an act of free will and intention, choose to think the Words of God and stand on them...

feelings aside.

Either God has given us the complete provision to be free from the control of our struggles ...

or He did not.

It is that simple.

It is refreshing and liberating to get back to the basics of Christianity...

repent of my unbelief of what God says;

forgive those who have hurt me;

forgive myself for not measuring up to that in which I believe I've failed;

make restitution to those whom I have hurt;

repent of my idolatry (believing that I can control things and people around me through whatever means);

refuse to take offense;

and quit blaming God for my problems.

If I am experiencing a chronic emotional (thinking) problem, I need to "purpose and choose" to let go of it because God already did His part...

and then live in the freedom He gave me.

I get it now.

Satan was kicked out of heaven because of his pride. He is the god of this present world. Mankind chose to go along with him and thus we have what we have today. We all make choices in keeping with Satan's nature or with God's nature. The wars and klling and hatred in this world are not God's fault.

God wasn't willing to settle for that so He became one of us to show us the way to safety...to buy us back for Himself because of His great love. He made a way out.

I can choose the way out - it's not a mystery.

Or, I can stay locked into the bondage that Satan freely provided.

It's my choice.

...for what it's worth.