Plan now for future success! Invest for the future! Education is for you!
So read the billboard beside the busy freeway. The sign expressed in catchy phrases the main goal of the American public education system— success!
Some years ago I happened upon a quaint little town in the hill country of Virginia. Business establishments, jammed one against another, crowded the narrow main street. Here and there I could see an alley between buildings.
No doubt you are familiar with the pictures and figurines of the three monkeys that cover their ears, eyes, and mouths with their hands—hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. A young man recently sported a T-shirt alteration of the traditional monkeys. His shirt depicted four monkeys. One was saying, “Hear no evil.” Another portrayed, “See no evil,” and another, “Speak no evil.” The fourth monkey was saying, “Have no fun.”
Repeated attempts to blow up airplanes and to perpetuate other acts of terror around the world show just how fragile even the tightest security programs can be. Security measures can be evaded or things can slip through. Admittedly, many acts of terrorism have been averted, but all it would take is one huge disaster to shake up the world even more than after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
Several years ago a pastor and some of his young people made headlines when they built a large bonfire and the young people threw their rock music into the fire. The reason they gave for doing this was that young people so often commit immorality to a background of rock music that they wanted to be rid of its evil influence.
The electric clock hands sweep silently through the wintry night. Then the jarring buzz—fivethirty a.m.—time to get up again. I take it for granted every morning. Sure, the electricity may go off, but rarely. There’s always the old faithful wind-up alarm clock in case of emergencies.
What would you do if a huge slab of ice came crashing through your roof and smashed on the floor right in front of you? You’d probably jump in momentary dismay, wouldn’t you?
The fable is told of a greedy fox who was gorging himself on an animal he had killed. As he ate, a bone stuck in his throat, and he could not swallow it. The pain was so excruciating that the fox ran around and around seeking relief. He promised he would give anything if someone would remove the bone from his throat. He tried to get all the animals he met to remove the bone, but not one dared. Finally the crane agreed to try. The fox opened his mouth as wide as he could, and the crane stuck its long beak down his throat, loosened the bone, and pulled it out.
In the middle 1960s the religious world was shaken with an old teaching in new garb. This teaching was called the death-of-God theology. Theological swamis from various liberal church groups began proclaiming, “God is dead.” Many blindly followed their confusing signals. Many who would not dare follow the death-of-God theology quoted from the theologians who contributed to it. For example. Paul Tillich, a liberal theologian of those days was at best a pantheist, almost an atheist. Others loved to quote the German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose ideas at least helped create a climate favorable to the notion that God is dead.
Long ago the writer of the Bible Book of Judges made this observation about his generation: “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). The Book of Judges goes on to illustrate this observation. The writer was speaking about the professed people of God, not the “heathen” around them. Furthermore, the people did what was right in their own eyes, not so much because they did not have a king to tell them what to do, but because they had abandoned their God and the teachings of His Word, the Bible.