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December 26, 2005
It was last
package under the tree…DVDs…the full first year of the hit television
series 24. The store clerk warned me. “Once you begin,” he
said, “you won’t be able to get away from the television.” He was
right.
The past 12
hours have been heart-stopping. Jack’s family has been kidnapped.
Janet was hit by a car, saved by hospital emergency workers and then
murdered. Torn by conflicting advice from every corner, Palmer,
presidential candidate of supreme integrity, has to choose between
sending his son to prison or saving an enemy from murder.
This show has it
all. Intrigue, love, deception, honor, betrayal, sabotage and chaos.
But above all, it has courage. Jack fighting to find his family, Kim
pleading with her kidnappers to rescue Janet, Rick digging a grave for
his friend while plotting escape from captors, and Teri offering to be
the rapist’s victim in place of her own daughter.
Action is
intense. Finally, worn out from danger and tension, we manage to turn
off the television just as Jack runs after Teri and Kim into the
woods, chased by men firing automatic weapons. Will CTU helicopters
arrive in time?
Modern drama,
amplified by special effects, has given courage a new persona. Back
when courage was young, in the old black and white westerns of the
50s, it never had to outlast the last bullet in the six-shooter.
Today, courage
must be teamed with the ability to speed down the freeway firing back
at your pursuers while decrypting the ransom note on a palm pilot
before satellite signals set on a 60-second timer fire an ICBM from
Antarctica to obliterate the sold-out World Series crowd at Houston
Astros Ballpark precisely at the moment the President of the United
States throws out the first pitch.
But that’s movie
courage. Real courage is more simple.
The world may
indeed explode with one single blast of an ICBM. For a disaster of
that magnitude, we need action heroes like Jack and their type of
courage.
However, the
world is ever more likely to dissolve in the poison accumulated over
decades of human indifference to eternal truths that have been
discarded in order to pursue our own momentary desires. We can turn
the tide on such a disaster. But it will also take courage.
It takes courage
to return to truth. Like the mythical sirens who sang to sailors,
modern culture lures us with promises that we can have everything we
want without a price. By far, the easiest path laid out for us today
is the road of sexual permissiveness that has led to unwed teen
pregnancies, an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, a breakdown
in marriages and destruction of families.
Truths set
aside, we have been persuaded that fidelity, honor, reverence,
monogamy, and family no longer matter. We must resist the easy path
before us. Only courage can help us restore the natural order of
human life and dignity.
Declaring truth
is an act of courage. Sex for humans is more than the animal sex act
that produces a litter of puppies. In a world where promiscuity is
excused as “natural” human conduct, we must have the courage to speak
the truth.
Restoring truth
in our homes is an act of courage. Setting standards for our own
behavior as adults, becoming role models for our children, may force
us to give up our own bad habits first. If we are to speak the truth,
we must live it, too.
Upholding truth
in our relationships is an act of courage. Seeking counseling to
restore a marriage is a gift to ourselves and to our children, a
decision that will challenge us to be better people at the cost of our
own personal accountability and sacrificial love.
Standing apart
for truth is an act of courage. Being the only parents who object to
handing out free condoms at the local high school may set us up as
targets for those who teach children that abstaining from sex is
unrealistic and unnecessary. We must be willing to stand for truth,
even if we are standing alone.
The world is in
danger. The script for saving the world is already written in the
eternal truths about human love. But it’s not enough to know the
truth.
We have the
power to save the world…one simple courageous act at a time. Real
courage…in real life…is exercised in the simple decisions and actions
each of us make during every ordinary day.
We may know the
truth. But, courage is required to live the truth.
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December 27, 2004
New Year's Resolution:
Another Kind of Diet
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