Wake Up, Look Up

[Music]

hello everybody thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach wck

and in today's episode we're asking the

question what does creativity teach us

about Sin uh this is prompted by a

pretty crazy story I read recently about

four people in Southern California who

hatched an insurance fraud scheme that

uh is evil but also a little hilarious

uh what they did is they uh parked a

sports car uh outside of the home of one

of the people involved in their plot and

the home had a camera as so many homes

do and they had another person in their

group dress up like a bear put on a bear

costume and actually had some of those

things you use to shred meat like when

you barbecue as claws and the bear got

into the sports car and wrecked it and

then the people filed an insurance case

on the car using the video evidence of

the person in a bear costume to show

that yes in fact a bear had broken into

the car and then filed insurance claims

to make money they did it four times and

received up to

$140,000 from four different insurance

companies until one of the insurance

companies thought it was was a little

suspicious and this is my favorite part

that they brought in the California

Department of Fish and Wildlife and had

them watch the video and the quote in

the article is that the fish and

wildlife expert said uh that is

definitely a human in a be costume which

I just would have loved to have been in

the room when that was said and so sure

enough they investigated under operation

bearclaw and found these four people in

the fraud they committed it's a crazy

story that lifetime will probably turn

into a movie at some point but it makes

me think of two things uh first is you

know Paul tells us in the Book of Romans

that all of us are sinners Jeremiah 17

will say that the human heart is

desperately wicked and one of the ways

you see that best is the creativity that

some people put in to their wickedness I

mean these are four people that got

together and thought you know what we

should do we should park a car out here

we should get a bear costume we can make

money this way like the depth of their

depravity the the depth of their deceit

their willingness to defraud all these

steps they took really does show how

deep our own sinfulness goes that our

hearts really are wicked that we're kind

of constantly scheming and manipulating

our way out and look most of us are not

putting on a bear costume and committing

insurance fraud but maybe we're figuring

out how to cheat on our taxes or to uh

steal a couple of hours back from work

to to cheat our HOA when they're not

looking we're scheming all the time and

and that's part of what it means to be

human it's part of what it means to be

fallen and so sometimes I think we

struggle with the idea that human beings

are sinful and and stories like this

always remind me no no it's true but but

here's the second thing uh sinfulness

doesn't always introduce something new

it just perverts something good and when

I think about these four people and the

whiteboarding session that they had

where they decided who is going to be

the bear and who would make sure the

camera was pointed in the right

direction who would interact with the

insurance companies there's a lot of

thought imp planning that went into this

which means these four people could have

been working at a marketing agency they

could have been in sales they could have

been starting a software company they

displayed Ingenuity creativity and even

I mean not great acting ability but at

least some acting ability they showed

the talent and the gifts that God had

given them but because of sin they used

those gifts and talents not for God's

glory and the good of their neighbor but

for their own selfish gain I don't know

if you've ever thought about this but

it's probably likely that the sins you

and I struggle with most in life are

perversions of our natural talents and

abilities and proclivities in other

words it isn't so much that we want to

stop being aggressive or stop being

creative or stop having Ingenuity it's

just that we're rerouting those things

in a positive direction under the

leadership ship of God the truth is we

spend a lot of time and energy on being

bad time and energy that could just as

easily be used for the glory of God and

the good of our neighbors most of us

need to do a quick systems check and

realize that being bad is not only

putting us at odds with God and at odds

with each other it's a colossal waste of

time time that could have been oriented

in another Direction what does

creativity teach us about Sin well that

we're all sinners and that we're wasting

our time we should be living lives of

incredible meaning and value hey thanks

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