During a physical therapy session, my knee made a loud pop. On my road to recovery some three months after shattering the top of my tibia, I’ve heard it pop many times. My physical therapist heard it. He said, “That popping sound is actually trapped gas being set free.” That was a new one to me. My mother had always said when I would crack my knuckles that it would cause arthritis or make my knuckles abnormally large. I actually looked it up and confirmed that popping sounds are normal.
As I lay there doing leg raises and other strengthening exercises I started thinking about other myths and conspiracy theories. Several came to mind such as the moon landings were all faked, the Jewish Holocaust in WWII didn’t happen, the earth is really flat, and the national phone call back on October 4th would cause government mind control.
It’s easy to laugh these off when you know the truth, but what about myths or theories that get in the way of a Christian’s walk with Jesus? I did some more stair step knee work and the Lord brought to mind a woman in Goshen who believed with all her heart that smoking cigarettes had doomed her eternally to Hell. When my wife and I were Disaster Relief Chaplains after the tornadoes ripped through eastern Cincinnati, Mary Leigh encountered a woman who was friendly and willing to discuss what it meant to follow Jesus. But for 45 minutes, Mary Leigh could not explain that there were any works or sins we might have that can block us from an eternity with Jesus. All we need to do is repent and believe in Jesus and His ways.
Each of us are to be guardians of Gospel Truth. The Apostle Peter said, “But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).
When it comes to debunking myths, a personal peeve of mine is seeing Christians posting and reposting things that sound too good to be true on social media platforms like Facebook or X that I think hurt a Christian’s credibility. When my Dad was alive and just getting into Facebook, he had reposted or shared something posted by someone else that I knew to be false, but sounded good. I remember my Dad saying, “Why would a trusted physician in Memphis post anything that wasn’t true?” It actually hurt my Dad’s feelings to think a skilled Christian doctor could ever be the source of something that wasn’t just false, but a lie. It’s one thing to post it, but once discovered, I think we have a responsibility to right click and delete the post.
A good Proverb to guide us says, “He who walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out” (Proverbs 10:9 ESV).
So, if your knee pops while you’re walking in integrity, just smile and press on.
--Mark Snowden is the director for the Cincinnati Area Baptist Association.
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