DON'T BLAME CHANGING TIMES
Most of us have learned to cope with, if not exactly embrace, the technological revolution that has completely restructured our world over the past two decades. Words like "Internet", "e-mail" and even "distance learning" may not be in your dictionary yet, but they soon will be. And that dictionary probably won't be paper like the ones most of us learned to use; instead, it will be part of the "spellchecker" on a computer hard drive, or perhaps on a single "CD-ROM" that contains thousands of pages of information. Despite my RELATIVE comfort with all these newfangled innovations, I have to admit that I was a bit surprised last week by the latest innovation -- "confessional software". Apparently, this package has already made its debut in Poland, and Catholics can now plot graphs of their sins with a new program that helps them confess! The program "poses 104 searching questions to help users track their fight against sin and archive the result". At the end, you can even check a box which says "I sincerely repent". As Dr. Harold Sala commented last week, however, this software probably won't be wildly popular. And his prediction has nothing to do with the fact that our society is less "religious" today. "The real reason", he says, "is not that we fear someone might bypass the file protection..., but that they might get beneath our exterior and see some of the darkness within". Even that fear is probably not so much motivated by a sense of shame as by a fear of what the revelation might do to our public image. There are those, of course, who say that times and people are getting worse. That no one cares about character any more, and that our society is no longer even interested in the pursuit of truth. Well, they may be right, and I suspect that each of us has plenty to confess. But that's nothing new. Human nature has always been so. The prophet Jeremiah said centuries ago, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) Maybe we're just less willing to exercise the discipline that keeps our worse impulses in check. Despite what some might think, technology isn't the culprit, just the medium. It offers promise as well as danger. It can make truth more accessible, or our relationships more superficial. The real danger, you see, is that we memorize the story line, but miss the meaning. That we know all about the "what", but never seek to know "why". That we become like the old definition of a cynic -- one who knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing. It's all in the choices we make. If we're wise, we'll recognize our all too human tendencies...and take steps to deal with them. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling". (I Corinthians 2:3) His wasn't a fear of rejection or of prosecution, but a fear of falling short...of failing those who had counted on him. And THAT kind of fear can be helpful...if it leads us to repentance, discipline, and a closer walk with God. "Thanks be to God", he later proclaimed, "who GIVES me the victory...." But that victory begins with an honest self-assessment. As the ancient Psalmist discovered, "When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. I acknowledged my sin to you... and you forgave the iniquity of my sin". (Psalm 32:3,5) A basic need. An ancient remedy. Even in the "Information Age" some things don't change. May we each rediscover the "old" truths that lead to meaning and peace.
CAPT J. David Atwater, CHC, USN
|
