Several years ago I watched a disturbing episode on a nationally televised TV news program.
The segment began with the show's anchor briefly interviewing a dozen or so mothers of young children, asking what they thought the chances were that their child would voluntarily help a total stranger "Help look look for his puppy" at a mall or public playground ... despite a lifetime of hearing Mommy preach Don't Talk to Strangers and Never Ever Get into a Car with a Stranger!
Every Mom on the show was firm and indicated the chances were an emphatic ZERO: there was absolutely No Way their child would ignore all the warnings they'd been taught and intentionally disobey what Mommy'd said.
Then the anchor showed the Moms previously recorded videos of their kids doing exactly what Mommy had warned them ten million times to never ever do.
More than 75% of the kids happily ignored Mom's instructions and wandered off with a stranger to "help look for his puppy" without any hesitation whatsoever.
Of that seventy-five percent, 100% of their mothers were shocked speechless by what they saw their child doing. How could their child completely ignore everything that was meant to keep them safe and out of danger?
Could be because the stranger with the lost puppy at playground didn't look or sound anything at all like the Bogey Man who Mommy warned them about: that nice man at the playground didn't look or sound scary at all.
Her child might, but mine never would.
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I watched a DVD interview with a fragile-looking college professor who'd moved to the US after surviving years of confinement at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. As part of the liberal arts curriculum, the professor had his students watch films of Hitler's speeches and afterward, he always tried engaging them in discussions about what they'd just seen.
He was troubled by how often his students began snickering and laughing during the films, as though Hitler was nothing more than a caricature of a madman. The professor was also dismayed that so many intelligent, supposedly open-minded college students would shake their heads and ask him, "How could the German people be so stupid to fall for that clown?"
The old professor's backbone must have been made of titanium because his answer was always the same: "Are you so stupid that you believe the next Hitler will come goose-stepping down the street wearing swastikas and a tiny mustache? No, you simpletons! The next Hitler will appear from nowhere and gain attention by promising he has all the solutions necessary to fix everything that's wrong with the country.
"Once his words excite the people's hopes, from that point on he'll tell them exactly what they want to hear. He'll promise that victory is within reach. He'll assure them that every problem can be solved ... if only the people will stand behind him and give him the power necessary to take the necessary and appropriate action." That's how dictators are made.
The wise old professor went on to say that in all his years of teaching, practically none of his students believed they could ever be so gullible or so easily manipulated. Which of course, he said sadly, is the mindset that makes the ascension of a monster like Hitler possible.
That other guy is a fool, but not me.
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Satan must not be much intimidated or feel too threatened about me, because in my entire life he's never shown up or appeared to me in person and said, "Hey Joe ... doesn't a little sin sound like FUN right now?"
Not only that, but I've never even had a demon grab me by the arm and whisper "Hey buddy, let's go out and get ourselves sinned up real good" nor have I ever met anybody who had horns, or anybody who concealed their clove hooves in shoes, or anybody who carried a pitch fork nor anybody who wore a red satin body suit around town. Not one time. Ever.
So what's preventing me from living a completely sin-free life?
The other guy's obviously a sinner, but not me.
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The world would likely shake its head an announce, "Aha! You yourself said you've never seen the devil so obviously you're not being targeted by demons or evil spirits. Thus your own words prove the devil doesn't exist."
I didn't say that at all, but that argument makes my point: the stranger at the playground doesn't show up wearing bloody overalls or carrying a chain saw. The stranger at the mall who talks a child into following him out the door wouldn't dare tell that child what's on his mind or what's about to happen.
Nor would the stranger who rings the front doorbell to ask a child "Is your Mommy home?" show up wearing a scary mask or dress himself as the bogey man. Instead he'll put on his best face and try his hardest to be pleasant and reassuring ... because he wants the child to feel comfortable and actually eager to unlatch the door and let him inside.
No matter how many times Mommy and Daddy told them not to ever, ever do it.
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God is our Father. And because God loves us far more than we can imagine, God also wants to protect and keep us from harm even more than we can imagine.
Put simply, because none of us were born knowing everything about anything and will never know anything about everything, God gave us His commandments to keep us out of trouble in every thing.
Not to keep us from having fun. Not to keep us from "discovering our true selves." Not to keep us chained to man-made authorities or institutions. But to keep us close to him ... and to protect us from that poor man at life's playground who's just lost his puppy.
