Today's Scripture Reading (October 29, 2022): Proverbs 1
"All the other kids are doing it." Do you remember using that excuse with your parents?
I do. I remember leaving to deliver my papers in a snowstorm one afternoon, and
all I was wearing was my jean jacket. Of course, my mother stopped me at
the door, demanding I put on my winter jacket. My response? "Mom, no one else is wearing their winter coats. I
will look like an idiot!" I think the most often offered response to "all the other kids are doing it" is the precious retort, "if all your other friends decided to jump off a
bridge would you jump too?" Of course, both the assertion about all the other
kids and the response about jumping off a bridge are overly simplified. "All" is an overgeneralization, and as far as I know, there have been no mass incidents of kids jumping off bridges. I admit that, on that
day, I delivered my papers in my jean jacket, but I wasn't far into the task when I began to wish I had
listened to mom and put on something warmer.
But something is encouraging about being with others. Even as an introvert, I believe we are built for at least some community. And the call to community is enticing on some level to all
of us. Southern Baptist theologian, Duane Garrett, adds this thought. "Apparently in ancient
Israel, no less than in the modern world, the comradeship, easy money, and
feeling of empowerment offered by gangs was a strong temptation to the young
man who felt overwhelmed by the difficulties of the life he confronted every
day" (David A. Garrett).
Solomon's
purpose for his Proverbs was that he would give us the defense that we need to
meet the daily challenges of life. Solomon writes in this book that we should
be forewarned and able to resist the temptation to do wrong. We must decide who
we are and what we will do when temptation strikes before that moment of
temptation arrives.
Regardless
of how old we are, the lure of "all the other kids are doing it" is a
great temptation. We live in a time when we tend to live in echo chambers of
people who agree with us, so now, more than ever, "all of the other
kids/people are doing it" is a very real possibility from the place where
we are living. It seems that we are never even exposed to that lone voice.
A voice of one calling:
"In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the
desert
a highway for our God (Isaiah 40:3).
And often, it is that voice we need to hear
rather than the cacophony of voices urging us to join them in doing something easy
but very wrong.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading:
Proverbs 2
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