Good Monday morning! The streets are a bit inconvenient today, but the town folks should be able to get to work and school. Ya'll enjoy that trip today; my work is right here in my home. One good thing about a spring blizzard: when the sun comes out the light is quite blinding. Don't stare outside without a good pair of sunglasses. Sorry, I'm a bit late today. I got caught up listening to Casting Crowns' album The Altar and the Door; you might want to purchase that one by the way. If you just said, "I'll have ol' Bob burn it for me," then shame on you. Some aspects of dishonesty are easy to fall into these days. Friends might offer to record a copy of a movie or album to "try it out", and then forget to buy their own copy.
Broadcast radio - you know, that old AM and FM thing - spoiled us with free music. Artists and music companies used the medium to advertise their product, hoping that people would go out and buy their albums. Broadcast radio and television were of course supported by advertising. Without launching into a lengthy discussion of the history of information mediums and media or as we often hear now, long story short. Dishonesty has become rather endemic to our culture. People think the government owes them support, government workers are widely known as being less productive than their corporate counterparts, military folks tend to equate tax money with free money (I was there), people cheat on their taxes, and then we have the widespread little cheating: copying of software, music, and video.
Why so much dishonesty? Has the pressure to succeed in this world become so intense that people must cheat? The condition may exist in us from the beginning. The urge to take the easy way is probably a part of that sinful nature we inherit from being born into the human race. A child or pet can be trained toward honesty by the threat of punishment. However, that sort of training can break down as soon as the threat is removed. Most of us have experienced at least some, shall we say, "less than perfect" behavior from going off to college. Our parents, teachers, and pastors, were no longer watching us and we tried out our new freedom in ways that disappointed our Father in Heaven. Only in Christ can we find the desire to take the right way, not to avoid punishment because someone might be watching, but to follow our Lord Jesus. Am I completely there yet? No, I have a long way to go in this race, but the Holy Spirit is showing me that there is a better way - the Way of Jesus Christ.
May God bless you on this bright day!
Bucky
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