| Where is our standard?In this ever changing world that we live in our young people are constantly faced with new fads, new trends new things that make their life, “better.” It seems that every time I open my eyes there is a new gadget or a new upgrade. The old adage about how once you buy an electronic item, it is out of date and there is a newer and better model is so very true. In fact, I think that there may even be two or three new models or upgrades. These gadgets and gizmos promise an easier life, more connections to more people, and a cooler status, and our young people crave it! We constantly hear about the statistics of how many of our teenagers friends don’t ever have face to face personal contact with them. I can remember writing letters to friends after I moved to a different state, but that slowly faded. I at least knew those people. Whereas our teenagers have never met that kid in Japan, or those friends in England or that other state, etc. etc. The next fact, strange to us as it may be is that they value each of these friends and their opinions as if they were their childhood best friends. Having never spent time personally with these people, they have say over things varying from what our teenagers wear, the lingo that they use, to the way they believe about something. And where do they find such “friends?” They meet them in chatrooms, on their friends friends friends MySpace account. They meet them on blog sites of personal interest. And the list goes on and on. To add fuel to this fire, I ask you if you have seen these other people? The scantily clad girl who is fourteen. The guy who has no shirt on flexing away. The 37 year old guy pretending to be a 15 boy. We see them all over. Now, this is not a blanket statement against the internet nor is it a bash on blog sites. This is a mere evaluation of teenage society. And if I am completely honest, its not just teenage society. Many adults are buying in to this way of thought and life.
We reach a point where we must ask ourselves one question; where is the standard? Now I know, many of you out there are thinking one of a couple things….1) That is just society today. You just live with it. 2) Its not as bad as you think. Once you get into it, you can weed around those people. And they really aren’t as bad as you think. 3) Stop being so dogmatic. The Bible never talks about the internet. The Bible doesn’t deal with these “grey areas.” Don’t be an out of date, out of touch speaker that seeks to apply the Bible to everything! This is a totally new area.
If we are saying those things, which I believe many of us are, we are completely wrong my friends. We have left our base, left our standard. We have taken the Bible and built culture and society on top of it, making them our foundation. We live our lives so that we must first align our thoughts with society and THEN, if we ever go that far, the Bible. The sad thing though is most of us never consult the Word of God on topics. We seek our ever changing, flexible, pliable conscience. That which quickly becomes numb to the things around us, and we reach a point where we say, “Its not THAT bad." In our effort to remain culturally relevant, have we become Biblically inapt?
I ask once more…..”Where is our standard?” |
