July 16, 1996
City officials might be tempted to add sporting event surcharges just to cover damages caused by post game riots. The problem is that some say rioters are not even fans — they are merely looking for an excuse to damage property and get themselves a new television set or VCR.
With alarming frequency, cities in Europe and even North America are scenes of violence after soccer or other games. Police break up the mobs with riot sticks, horses and tear gas but not before windows are broken and property stolen or damaged. A common attitude among those arrested is general defiance toward authority.
Perhaps this is a negative spinoff from a currently-prized rugged individualism. People like the taste of independence, of “no one is going to tell me what to do.” But, some of them are taking their attitude too far. To them, “freedom” means no laws, no authorities, even no God.
We are shocked by their behavior but such unconstrained, fist-in-the-face defiance does not shock the Lord, who is the ultimate authority figure. Several hundred years ago, He inspired Isaiah to write about us: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way....”
This verse is only one of many in the Bible that explains human nature apart from God. It says we are universally inclined to do our own thing and to resist authority that says otherwise. From the cradle, we begin making demands. For some, those demands increase into a selfishness that rules their lives until the second ultimate authority, death, finally demands and gets full submission.
Those who turn away from God also defy His commands regarding external controls. Some even say there is no God, nor any ultimate laws or principles by which to live. The Old Testament describes it as “each person does what is right in their own eyes.” When that happens in our day, news headlines testify there are drastic and tragic consequences.
Rioting is only one example. Resistance to authority, even without clenched fists, can hide behind a smile. Children sometimes do it by standing up when told to sit. All sorts of seemingly agreeable people refuse to buckle their seat belts, run red lights, or walk when the sign says wait. Are all declaring: “I will do what is right in my own eyes.”
God’s laws for us include obeying these civil laws and giving political leaders our respect. The Bible says we should even pray for our leaders. Imagine the difference respectful prayer would make in our own emotional state compared with the inner agitation that accompanies our grumbling!
The fact that we disobey law and complain instead of obeying and praying suggests that we do not trust or believe in the sovereignty of God. At least one ancient king, Nebuchadnezzar, had trouble with this. God allowed him several years of insanity until he acknowledged that, “the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes.”
Ordinary people and kings resist God but so did the “religious” elite of Jesus’ day. They accused Him of being demon-controlled and would not obey Him. Jesus described their attitude in a parable: “We will not have this man rule over us.”
Today, people are discouraged from believing in Jesus and in a sovereign God who has the ultimate say-so over our government and our lives. If that is the way we want it, then we ought to be prepared for the consequences. Even if we ourselves do not succumb to senseless rioting, we may need to start wearing bulletproof vests and building bomb shelters to protect ourselves from others who have decided “there is no God” or “even if there is, He will not rule over us.”
Showing posts with label riots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label riots. Show all posts
Monday, December 5, 2016
Monday, August 24, 2015
Sin is like soil erosion ................ Parables 317
May 12, 1992
My mom’s favorite rhetorical question is: “How could anyone do such a thing?”
The recent riots in Los Angeles and other major cities have no doubt brought the same question to many minds. How could anyone beat an uninvolved bystander to death? Or shoot a child? Or break into a business and walk away with whatever they want?
About a week before the riots began, I heard someone talk about erosion, not in reference to the topsoil blowing around Saskatchewan but regarding the erosion of the human will. This concept answers the question: How can people be so illogically sinful?
Basically, the average person thinks twice about violating social and moral norms. Most of us are not interested in committing any kind of gross offense or act of violence, either in mob conditions or more private situations. We are constrained by moral or religious convictions, fear of consequences, love of others, any number of things.
However, the temptation to evil seldom comes at us in the beginning with something gross. It usually starts with something small, a tiny temptation, something that seems fairly harmless. We know it is not right but since there seems to be no immediate reason why not to do it, or it seems no one is looking or caring, we tend to compromise our convictions.
The first one, because it is so easy to slide into, is probably the most difficult to resist. The next temptation, the next opportunity to compromise, is easier to give in to, not because it seems even more appealing but because once we have yielded our wills, an erosion process has begun.
Our will is like the humus in prairie top soil. It serves as a protection. But when it is gone, it doesn’t take much wind to further deplete the land. Improved agricultural practices offered hope that the dust bowls of the Thirties would never be repeated, yet confidence this would not happen again tends to relax diligence.
It is the same with our will. When the surface resolve to say no to temptation is relaxed, the winds of compromise begin to deplete the soul. One capitulation after another soon leaves nothing to resist the final furious blast — and the person whose will has been eroded finds himself doing something that prior to his gradual slide he would never have consented to do.
But topsoil is not without hope. Once it is totally depleted it is in a stage called old age, but “such processes as erosion, flooding, dust storms, and volcanic eruptions expose or provide new, unweathered parent material to begin a new soil life cycle” (Grollier Electronic Publishing, Inc.)
Neither are souls without hope. Those who participated in the violence in Los Angeles, and others who have slid into gross sin, can acknowledge their depleted lives, ask God for forgiveness and begin anew — with His transforming help.
Better yet, both for soil and souls, is to avoid such erosion in the first place. A farmer needs to daily check the condition of his land. Leaders of major cities need to daily check the condition of their citizens. Each of us need to daily check the condition of our souls. Are we taking care of the little things? Or compromising here and there?
God promises, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
The best way out is not at the end when so much damage has been done, or even in the middle when we are often too weak in our resolve to say no, but right at the beginning — while we can still stand against the winds of temptation.
My mom’s favorite rhetorical question is: “How could anyone do such a thing?”
The recent riots in Los Angeles and other major cities have no doubt brought the same question to many minds. How could anyone beat an uninvolved bystander to death? Or shoot a child? Or break into a business and walk away with whatever they want?
About a week before the riots began, I heard someone talk about erosion, not in reference to the topsoil blowing around Saskatchewan but regarding the erosion of the human will. This concept answers the question: How can people be so illogically sinful?
Basically, the average person thinks twice about violating social and moral norms. Most of us are not interested in committing any kind of gross offense or act of violence, either in mob conditions or more private situations. We are constrained by moral or religious convictions, fear of consequences, love of others, any number of things.
However, the temptation to evil seldom comes at us in the beginning with something gross. It usually starts with something small, a tiny temptation, something that seems fairly harmless. We know it is not right but since there seems to be no immediate reason why not to do it, or it seems no one is looking or caring, we tend to compromise our convictions.
The first one, because it is so easy to slide into, is probably the most difficult to resist. The next temptation, the next opportunity to compromise, is easier to give in to, not because it seems even more appealing but because once we have yielded our wills, an erosion process has begun.
Our will is like the humus in prairie top soil. It serves as a protection. But when it is gone, it doesn’t take much wind to further deplete the land. Improved agricultural practices offered hope that the dust bowls of the Thirties would never be repeated, yet confidence this would not happen again tends to relax diligence.
It is the same with our will. When the surface resolve to say no to temptation is relaxed, the winds of compromise begin to deplete the soul. One capitulation after another soon leaves nothing to resist the final furious blast — and the person whose will has been eroded finds himself doing something that prior to his gradual slide he would never have consented to do.
But topsoil is not without hope. Once it is totally depleted it is in a stage called old age, but “such processes as erosion, flooding, dust storms, and volcanic eruptions expose or provide new, unweathered parent material to begin a new soil life cycle” (Grollier Electronic Publishing, Inc.)
Neither are souls without hope. Those who participated in the violence in Los Angeles, and others who have slid into gross sin, can acknowledge their depleted lives, ask God for forgiveness and begin anew — with His transforming help.
Better yet, both for soil and souls, is to avoid such erosion in the first place. A farmer needs to daily check the condition of his land. Leaders of major cities need to daily check the condition of their citizens. Each of us need to daily check the condition of our souls. Are we taking care of the little things? Or compromising here and there?
God promises, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
The best way out is not at the end when so much damage has been done, or even in the middle when we are often too weak in our resolve to say no, but right at the beginning — while we can still stand against the winds of temptation.
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