Scam
I overheard someone say, “It doesn’t matter what you believe so long as you are sincere.” I nearly interrupted because what we believe matters so much. Regardless of being sincere, nice people are sincerely wrong all the time and can be utterly misguided in their beliefs.
Los Angeles Airport. Photo: Mik Hapte pexels.com
Some years ago, a 22 year old man arrived at Los Angeles International Airport, returning from holidaying in Europe. He was heading home to Oakland, California 400 miles away. However he boarded an Air New Zealand flight bound for Auckland.
Murray Smith
Nearing Tahiti, an inflight announcement shocked Michael Lewis as to his predicament. Arriving at Auckland Airport, Lewis told a customs officer that he had arrived in Los Angeles aboard an Air New Zealand flight from London and ‘followed the crowd’, many of whom were traveling on to Auckland.
The officer stated, “Michael was asked where he was going. He replied ‘Oakland,’ received a boarding pass, ending up on the wrong aircraft.” This passenger sincerely believed that he was homeward bound for Oakland. ‘Following the crowd,’ got him diverted thousands of kilometres, in the opposite direction to home.
His unscheduled Auckland visit earned Lewis a return ticket to Los Angeles courtesy of Air New Zealand.
In another situation, an equally ‘sincere’ Kiwi grandmother, lost her entire life’s savings totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars to offshore scammers not long ago. Scammers, claiming to be legitimate financial advisors, convinced her their pitch was genuine. The pitch featured fake AI video generation portrayals of Christopher Luxon, Winston Peters and others. The targeted superannuitant believed she had made legitimate cryptocurrency investments.
It stacked up in her thinking – overseas ‘help-desk’ conversations, assurances of high returns lured her into facilitating transfers over weeks that siphoned everything from her savings account into a crypto exchange platform. The first dividend payment failed to show up in her account, setting off alarm bells. Attempts to recover any money have proved futile. This lady sincerely believed that her money was “safe and secure” but she was sincerely wrong. A victim of cruel deception, sadly she had “backed the wrong horse”.
How about you? Are you backing the wrong horse when it comes to crucial matters of life and death? Commonly, people’s flawed perspectives influence them into trusting a false narrative offering assurance they’ll be alright so long as they’re sincere and try their best. Many conclude, “trusting Christ as Saviour may be great for you, but it’s not for me”. That’s really an illogical position because Christianity being true is vitally important to all of us.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “Christianity is a statement which if false is of no importance and if true, is of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
We must understand some seriously bad news in order for some very good news to make sense. You see, we’re in a perilous position ‘on the wrong flight’, scammed into a false sense of security. Lost and alienated from God through our sin, our predicament is hopeless. However there’s good news for everyone. We can receive forgiveness and salvation, heralding a brand new beginning that is made available through faith and belief in Jesus Christ.
Photo: Mikhail Nilov pexels.com
