Preface

This reflection grew out of conversation with my Brother Sxexet, whose heart for healing reminded me that we live in a world thick with Lucifer’s smokescreen. The smoke is not only around us—it clings to us, shaping our memories and triggering our fears.

This is an urgent call to mind the almost invisible dangers of that smoke, and also an invitation to love: to breathe deeply of Creator’s Spirit, to let go of panic, and to be restored in gentleness, patience, and hope.

 The Question: Smoke or Fresh Air?

Are we in the smoke of exploitation in religion, or are we in the fresh air of mutuality—where we invest in community and reap growth from our investment in building relationships?

Yesterday I knew that my thought was twofold, but it did not fully unveil itself until this morning, when I read my Brother Sxexet’s statement of concern in our ongoing discussion about how to live authentically and effectively as family on this Earth home. Sxexet reminded me that this world is contaminated with Lucifer’s smokescreen, designed to keep us from wholeness, contentment, and creativity with God. The imagery from his heart for healing was so strong that the two parts of my thought became clear. What I saw was this:

God did not call us to build religions. God asked us to build relationships. If exploitation, hierarchy, and anxiety are a major part of your religious experience, it is time to require washing, to choose change, to step out of Lucifer’s smokescreen, my friend.

2. The Reality: What the Smoke Does

Smoke clouds our vision and makes us panic. In survival mode, we grasp at anything that seems to promise relief.

Lucifer keeps the smoke alive with his toxic conflagration of shame, blame, punishment, and reward.

Shame and blame are the green wood—always wet, always smouldering, never burning pure. Punishment and reward are the flame—igniting the green wood again and again, keeping the haze thick.

Together they create endless smoke. The shame and blame never consume fully; the punishment and reward never satisfy. Instead, the cycle keeps triggering panic, filling the air with confusion and fear.

And this is where learned helplessness and learned arrogance take root:

Learned helplessness when people breathe the smoke so long they collapse in despair, convinced escape is impossible. Learned arrogance when others believe they have mastered the haze—climbing hierarchies, stepping into faulty lifeboats, or being handed protective masks that still leak. None of these save us. They only keep us bound to the smoke, pretending safety while the air still poisons.

This is why it is ESSENTIAL that there is no four-part hierarchy of honour, as Dave Jamieson preached in his sermon. Hierarchies reward arrogance at the top and deepen helplessness at the bottom. They are masks that leak.

And for restoration, God invites us to the water for baptism as a somatic ritual: an embodying physical experience that moves healing deeper through us than thoughts or words.

Here, love washes over us, clearing the smoke that lingers in our hearts.

This smoke shows up everywhere:

In schools, where children sit in the anxiety of feeling like failures. In homes, churches, athletic clubs, and relationships, where hustle and hierarchy smother joy. In systems that exclude, exploit, or soothe distress ineffectively, failing to respond to cries for help.

When children grow up in communities where the smoke is thick, they grasp on to anything that looks like a saviour: religion, materialism, hierarchy, education, fame, marriage, accomplishments. But these lifeboats become smoke too when they are built on exploitation and hierarchy.

Time spent clearing the smoke is never time wasted. Showing up with love and hope is always valuable.

And part of clearing the smoke is being willing to pause for confrontation with humility. To listen when a brother or sister loves us enough to risk our displeasure and say, “I smell smoke on you.”

We need that kind of courage in community, because the smoke clings without our noticing. If we are not careful, our own oxygen becomes contaminated, and we may carry the scent that triggers someone else’s panic memory.

Listening in humility does not diminish us—it protects us. It gives us space to wash again in the water of love and to show up with gentleness, patience, and clarity instead of unknowingly carrying the smoke further.

3. The Invitation: Cast It on the Water

God is calling us into the healing waters of peace. We are ALWAYS accepted and honoured—never rejected. Never. Not ever.

The invitation is not only to put out the fire but to cast the whole smoke-filled cycle into the water, letting the sea carry it to the depths. The water does more than extinguish. It washes away the very scent and memory of smoke.

Immersing ourselves in the water frees us from panic, restores us to love, and keeps the air clear. It returns us to the fruit of God’s Spirit: gentleness, kindness, patience, self-control, and hope. Without even the lingering smell of smoke, we no longer live in fear of being triggered back into survival mode.

4. The Practice: Love That Washes

Clearing the smoke requires both symbolic and embodied practices. Baptism is a symbol of being fully washed and refreshed in love, welcomed home into the experience of God’s kingdom here on Earth as it is in heaven. Foot washing, as Jesus taught, is a reminder that gentleness and humility are what wash the smoke of the smokescreen away.

So keep washing in the water—physically and symbolically. Immerse yourself. Wash one another’s feet. Show up with love and acceptance consistently for yourself, and then for others as you love yourself.

Time spent clearing the smoke is never time wasted.

5. The Refrain: Growing Together

Thank you for your persistently courageous warrior heart, Brother Bear. Your concern helped unveil what needed to come through me.

Growth happens best in relationship—with God, and with one another. When we are willing to listen deeply and respond as loving equals, we help each other see through the smoke. We breathe the fresh air of mutuality together. And together, we remember: the gentleness of love always washes the smoke away.