The other night the show "My Three Sons" was on Nick at Nite. It amuses me to watch these old family value shows, filmed in black and white, some of them as old or older than I am! The episode I was watching had some mis-behaving boys in it, and the uncle was lamenting how kids are so much worse than when in HIS day. The father, the image of wisdom and the anchor of the show quotes this:
"The children love luxury, they have bad manners, contempt for authority. They show disrespect for elders, and love chatter in place of exercise. Children now are tyrants, not the servants of the household. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."
Does it sound familiar? I hear it every so often in a message from the pulpit. The point I make is the one the preacher usually does: we often look back and think things are so much different for us than any time in history; that surely the world will end soon; that people have become so evil God must be about to lose his patience with us.
If things were so much different now than when I was a kid, why is a 40 year old TV show quoting the above? Which, by the way, is a quote from Socrates, over 2000 years ago. Why didn’t God toast the earth then? Because it wasn’t time yet. There was still work that needed to be done. Here’s another quote:
"Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is coming to an end. Children no longer obey their parents. Everybody wants to write a book. The end of the world is near"
Does this one strike closer to home? Would you believe it’s supposedly 4000 years old? We all think we’re "modern", when really we’re just someone else’s history!
What is new about our times? Often we lament for a Christian that went astray, but there are Christians from the beginning that were lost, some by indifference, some by choice. We are saddened when a teenager becomes an adult and no longer shows a love for God, but for every one of those that leave there are several that blossom into the next generation of teachers, preachers, fathers, and mothers, all steadfast in their service to the Lord. We say that TV and Movies are bad, but I submit that before they were ever invented there were deviants in the world, who drew pictures, attended live shows, and hey the Roman culture among others believed in "free love" before the amateur hippies ever picked up on it! Surely drinking isn’t new, else why does the bible describe it so clearly? When has the devil not been around, to tempt and twist us in any way he can?
Even our presidential deadlock isn’t all that new. Many times the decision came down to only a few thousand votes different, and sour-grapes lawsuits by those who lose have been around since the earliest days of America the nation. And here are a few other things that aren’t new:
Before the election, I had a neighbor that I wanted to study with who was a lost soul. After the election, I have a neighbor that I want to study with who is a lost soul. Before I ever was born, my father had a job to do - teaching the lost. After I am gone, my son will have a job to do - teach the lost.
Some things will never change - until God says Enough!
Randy