Vanity of Vanities

The Apple IIc

       I have been an Apple computer user for more than 20 years. Now it seems like I am bragging, but it has not always been that way. I participated in my first Apple grant in 1985. I had just started teaching and was invited to participate in a grant that allowed me to have twelve computers in my classroom. They were Apple IIc. Do you remember those? Everything was done by way of floppy disks, no memory and those disks were the 5 inch variety. For twenty plus years I have had Apples in my classroom, until last year. For all those twenty plus years, I have put up with Apple jokes, jabs, ridicules and down right arguments. The students were the worst. Now for two years I have had PCs (14) in my room. And this year the jokes are against the PCs. I overheard yesterday two students poking fun at a kid who brought his PC (Dell) laptop into class. My how things change, but stay the same. I felt sorry for the kid. Ever since ipod, iphones, ipads, and everything else in the "i" generation has become the item to have the flock has switched sides. My father in the faith, John Stevens, once likened people to chickens. And I think he was right. They instinctively know what is the "herd" mentality and peck at anything and everything that does not conform to their "standard". They will find a weak chick and peck it to death.
      Darwin was right about  the crowd, herd, gang, clique, social group, ilk,  whatever, and how it survives. It is by culling the group of the weak, nonconformist, non cool, you know the ones. The Outcast of Poker Flats. Moving them to the outside of the camp so they can get picked off. Have you seen those videos of the way lions and other predators hunt on the Serengeti? (I know, I had to put one in where the zebra wins) But usually, they stalk the herd until they find that weak one on the outside of the camp and wham. Down it goes and all the scavengers, birds of prey, hyenas, they all take their turn devouring the weak one. Darwin was right in his description. The problem is that while it may be descriptive it is definitely not prescriptive, nor should it be. That is not the future of God's family. Darwin's description of nature lacks faith. Romans claims that all creation is crying out for the birth of God's sons. Waiting in this futility until we Christians come to maturity and do something about it. Why has the rule of Darwin been so effective? Probably because the ruler of this age  and this world  (John 16:11, oJ a⁄rcwn not prince, see GNT or NET) thinks the survival of the fittest is a way of life. It is not.
       We have the magazine called Vanity Fair come to our home every month. Great name for this age, Vanity Fair. Talk about a perfect description.  (‹MyIlDbSh l§EbSh, "vanities of  vanities all is vanity" Ecc. 1:2 in Hebrew this word can mean "futility", also) Futility Fair. : ).  In the back of this month's issue it had the list of the 100 most influential people of the Information Age. You probably can name most of them.
        When I saw that list it brought to mind God's list found in the Hebrews. In Hebrews 11 the 'roll call of the faithful'. It says of Moses "when he had grown up, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin." What futility there is in the "passing pleasures of sin". We see the futility in the social news every day. What rich kid will be dragged into court next, refusing to grow up.
        John Stevens in his book Authority Over Futility, says this "Immaturity in Christians is evidenced by those who are still moved by the world's passing scene, rather than by what the Lord says and by what He sets before them and that alone." Predicting the real movers of this Age who will loose creation from this futility he says, "This is the first mark of maturity. The sons of God who will arise in this generation, will be noted for this one thing: no matter what advantages the world may be able to give, they refuse them because those advantages are wholly engulfed ...in futility. ...They will choose a walk with God"(155).  These are the real influential people of the information age or any age and especially the Age to Come.
     How do we Christians get to this maturity? How do we get out of this age and refuse its futility? Like Christ told Nicodemus, we must be born of the spirit to see the Kingdom of God. There is an experience we need from God to get us into this next step toward His Kingdom. If we are still enjoying this age, we are not seeing His Kingdom clearly. I do enjoy looking through Futility Fair but now and again I am amazed at how different I am from all that glitz and glamour. I want to be wholly given to His Kingdom. I want this experience that Christ was talking about. I want to see fully His Kingdom come, in this earth.

For a more extensive development of this thought, listen to the CD entitled God's Kingdom Is Not of This World