Our Daily Bread

All of us have times when we’d like to be completely free to do whatever we want. We long to break out of our restricting circumstances. But total freedom or complete independence is never an option for us. The Bible declares that we are servants by nature, even though we might not realize it.

Woody Allen once said, “If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank.” He was joking, but he was expressing an attitude that is quite common. God, though, doesn’t respond to such frivolous challenges to prove His existence. In fact, if the average person discovered $10 million in his bank account, instead of thinking of God he would probably assume that it was a computer error or a clerical mistake.

In the 1960s, many restless young people were duped into believing that getting high on drugs was the way to find the “reality” they craved. Those highs, however, were only illusions, not the real thing.

Dwight Slater, who is a retired missionary doctor, told me that while serving in Africa he had trained a brilliant but unschooled man to serve as his surgical assistant. Kolo was a quick learner, and soon he was able to perform surgeries.

A family counselor has identified what she calls “a salt-mine mentality” today. “In the 1980s it became all work, work, work,” says Mori Freed, “earning as much money as you can.” She says that people obsessed with making money get thrown out of balance. They become depressed and don’t know why, even though they’ve met all the goals they’ve set. Other observers see a similar trend in education, where homework time for elementary school students has almost doubled in the past 20 years.

An attorney sued a large corporation, charging its officials with breaking a contract with him. In the courtroom he asked for a huge sum of money to settle the case. In fact, the amount was so unusually high that the judge asked the attorney why he was demanding so much. The lawyer responded, “I’m doing this for one reason.” Then with his head held high he proclaimed, “I am, you understand, the best attorney in the world.”

Becoming rich and famous does not guarantee contentment. If it did, multimillionaire athletes would not jeopardize their careers by using illicit drugs. If it did, a wealthy lawyer would not have tearfully told me that he would gladly trade everything he had for a change in the behavior of his sons. If it did, the occurrence of multiple marriages among celebrities would not be commonplace. Obviously, contentment must come from a source other than wealth and fame.

Some things I just don’t understand. If my daughter who is majoring in math in college tells me anything about calculus, I’m lost. When I try to read how the stock market works, it may as well be in a foreign language. And it does me no good to look at sheet music; I just don’t get it.

What can be done to improve society? An MTV political correspondent had this unexpected but praiseworthy suggestion: “No matter how secular our culture becomes, it will remain drenched in the Bible. Since we will be haunted by the Bible even if we don’t know it, doesn’t it make sense to read it?”

To help heal the wounds left by racial injustices in South Africa, the government extended amnesty to any citizens who would come forward with the truth about crimes they had committed.