Hudson James, just a couple days shy of your 22nd birthday… a little encouragement from Cappy’s email to your ten-year-old self.
Twelve years later, I’m encouraged by his words here, along with the joy of reminiscing over this exchange. The power of words on a page, right?
And Hud, for the record, you are absolutely getting better and better at that. Love you with my whole heart.
Feb 25, 2011, Bill James wrote:
Hud-
We hear thoughts from several places. We hear an idea from our brain. We hear ideas from others. We hear an idea from the dark one. And we hear from the LIGHT.
The LIGHT is truth and goodness and joy. HE tells us of his love in many ways, using ideas and thoughts and others to show it. HE made us to be friends and have fellowship with HIM. When HE tells us things HE often whispers or like for me, reaches out from a sunset and draws me along.
The dark one uses harsh loud angry ideas to get his way.
The other night at the table when you curled up in the chair, we were all laughing and enjoying you and your jokes and sayings. Nothing was wrong. Really. We love you and enjoy your personality. It is at times like that, when it is loud and confusing, that the dark one can sneak into the loud noises and jumbled thoughts and trick us. Did you ever hear that everything is a trick?
I think he does that to some baseball players, when the bases are loaded with two outs and they have a full count, and the crowd is yelling and the other team is yelling and he gets in your ear and yells even louder, screaming lies like “I am no good, I can’t hit, I could never hit good, listen to all those people that hate me – when none of that is true. The batter has the chance, the choice, to decide what he hears and believes.
What matters here, like when you were curled up in the chair at the dinner table thinking through ideas trying to figure out what was going on, something was shouting loudest, “they are picking on me, there is something wrong with me, they don’t like me”— when none of that was true. And you know what is really true but sometimes we believe the loudest and worst voice. And we believe the lies because sometimes the Liar says them in our voice. He can imitate our voice. He can make us think a bad idea is our own idea. Because if it is in our own voice it must be true.
What matters most is that we remember who we are and who Jesus is. Who do we listen to? The loudest yelling? The biggest insult? The scariest thing? If so, we got tricked. Did you ever hear that everything is a trick? ☺
Many times when I was like that, curled up in a chair or something, feeling kinda vulnerable and feeling threatened, the dark one moves in and tries to make his ideas seem more real and important than anything else. And he tricks people into doing something or fearing something that isn’t even there. He does that with little ideas about little things like jokes, especially when we are young, and when we are older, he can easily do the same trick with important things to get people to do really silly and hurtful things that really do hurt or injure friendships and families, when there was really nothing wrong at all.
It is normal to get tricked. But we have to be smarter. Think about this-
Are you faster than a bicycle? Than a horse? Than an elephant? Yes. Especially if you are in the plane with me ☺
The dark one is smart. Smarter than any person. He has an IQ of maybe 2000.
But Jesus’ IQ is …INFINITY. And beyond! And like you in the airplane, HE is in you! And your brain and spirit. And HE tells you the truth. And HE tells you he loves you.
And like when you are in the airplane, you are faster, without even working hard, not nearly as hard as if you were running by yourself to outrun a dog or a horse or an elephant. An sometimes that’s what it’s like when people are stubborn and try to do for themselves the things that the LORD intended for us not to do alone, but with HIM and HIS help. We don’t even start to understand the things HE does for us. That’s what we get to learn in out life.
So, when you feel threatened or scared, listen to Jesus. Like the Marine caught in the pipe. Relax and listen. We spend our lives learning to listen to HIM instead of imposters and liars. Especially if you are in a room full of people that love you and love to laugh with you, you are safe. Listen to HIM, He’s there.
Everything is a trick, except Jesus. He is the real thing. And HE is faster than an airplane. Even running backwards! ☺
I love you Hud. And I need you to be smart. I need you to listen to yourself and your parents and Jesus. They have you in the right place. And if you hear ideas about scary things, listen especially for the Words that come to you from your spirit that you have been memorizing from the Bible. That is really smart and strong.
I love you HUD! You are fun.
Cap
Mar 2, 2011, Hudson Wilson wrote:
Cap – thanks for writing this to me. i want to thank you for all the things that you have taught me, like at the lake where you told me that satan’s IQ is 2000, but since we have jesus in our heart, and Jesus’ IQ is infinity and beyond. you said that our IQ is infinity and beyond, so I can teach all of my grandchildren what you taught me. I love you and you taught me not to crouch up in the chair at dinnertime and to just stay there and laugh along with all of the people who love me. my mom says I’m getting better and better at that. I love you!
Hud