IT’S PERSONAL 

            There is nothing that, well maybe nothing is too strong of a word, but there isn’t much, that brings me greater joy than seeing my little girl run through an endless field of grass squealing with delight and laughing as she races her cousins to the fort they built.  

            All year long I look forward to summer because it is the one time of year that I get to see my family and enjoy the peace that comes with open spaces, fresh air, and miles of green grass.   When I am on my brother’s farm in upstate New York, I can relax and know that my daughter is safe—well, relatively safe, except from the usual kid hazards of cuts, scrapes, and bruises from playing and climbing trees.  She can be off playing for hours and I do not have the overwhelming, and at times unreasonable, urge to check on her every few minutes to be sure she is all right.  I don’t have to sit outside and watch her ride her bike up and down the street for fear of cars driving too fast around the corner, or for fear of kidnappers or older, untrustworthy boys.  I am at peace—the kind of peace one feels when one knows, this is how life is supposed to be. 

            Life is different now than it was when I was growing up.  That may sound like a lead into the old cliché of “when I was growing up we used to walk to school barefoot, through the snow, up hill…both ways,” but life has changed, and not necessarily for the better.  When I was young I would be outside more than I was in.  I would leave the house practically at sun-up and would not come home until after sundown.  Sure, I would check in with my parents, but they were not constantly checking on me because they did not have the same fears that are readily present today.  Life is busier now and plagued with worry and fear.  We do not trust each other fully and are often second-guessing even well meaning people.

            I cannot help but ponder why.  I suppose we could blame advances in technology, but it’s not really technology’s fault.  It is our own and how we have chosen to use the advances.  Think of television and especially news programs.  Turn to any news channel, and I do mean any, and you will hear story after story of how someone has caused harm to someone else—this child was taken—last seen in her front yard, this girl—brutally murdered and the suspect still free; this store—robbed and one man killed with three shots to the chest.  It’s endless and the newspaper is no better—unless you choose not to read it.  The media is used to broadcast disaster and declare messages of fear.  Rarely is the story positive, and if there is a positive story, it’s one of the last ones mentioned.  Stations will often use the positive story as a hook to get you to keep watching the program.  Up next —which really means, at the end of the show and after a plethora of “drug-yourself-and-all-will-be-well” commercials—the story of a little girl who saved an entire neighborhood from disaster…and people will continue to wade through the morass to get to the positive side of the news. The concept of making sure that people know what is going on in the world is not bad, but the rapid fire of negativity leaves one questioning, doubting, fearing. Even if you try to tell yourself, “Well, that’s not how everyone is” in the back of your mind, a seed of fear is planted. 

            There is also the issue of the computer.  A fantastic technological invention in itself, but how we have chosen to use it has had, in some instances, a rather negative effect.  It serves many purposes, and is designed to bring people together—opening up lines of communication that otherwise would be impossible.  It has allowed us to access a wealth of information and has given us the opportunity to communicate quickly even over great distances; however, those lines of communication are thinly drawn and easily manipulated.   Does anyone really know the person at the other end of the line?   Because there is no face-to-face contact, people can pretend to be something they are not, creating new personas and manipulating others.  People have used technology to steal people’s identities, to hack into systems that would have been inaccessible before, and to lure people into traps of all sorts.  Internet havoc, and without computers it would have never been possible.   But can we really blame technology? I think not, although it has afforded us more opportunities for unchecked evils.

            What is truly at the root?  Ultimately it comes to a break down in values, an anything goes mentality that has written God out of every aspect of our lives as a nation, right down to taking him off our currency and practically writing him out of our history.  Because we have no fear of God or his word, we have allowed (as my brother Todd would say)  “sin to have a comfortable seat.”   We have made concessions in the name of not offending others.  Even as I write this there is a twinge in my heart that says, maybe I shouldn’t, someone might be offended.  But I write it anyway, because I believe that if we had our values straight, I would not have to fear letting my daughter play on the streets in my suburban neighborhood, and I would not have to retreat to the rolling hills of upstate New York to find peace and tranquility away from the majority of society.  If we lived according to God’s principles, it would not matter what technological advances were available to us because we would have the conviction to use them for good.    I know it sounds too good to be true, but wouldn’t it be nice?  It’s not to say that those who follow God’s principles can do no wrong, because of course they can.  But I have to think that if we valued what God valued—truly valued it—then instead of slashing tires, we would mend them, instead of breaking our neighbor’s fence, we would fix it, and instead of abusing a child we would laugh and run with her through the grass.