Following in the Footsteps

Trying - in my ever so inept way - to keep up with the youth of today - what's on their minds, the dress code, the vocabulary (and it changes....often), I do my research by periodically going to places where kids collect. One of those places in my neck of the woods is: THE MALL. The local mall here is quite large.... immense to my thinking, but I remember when 4 stores, not in a line or attached wall to wall was unique. Friday night at a mall which is open until 11pm is a universe unto itself populated - in an 8 to 1 ratio - with persons under the age of 21. There is Futurama and there is the Friday night mall - each is surreal for a childless middle aged person.

I also widen my horizons by watching cable TV programs aimed at this demographic...... I should emphasize the syllable GRAPHIC. MTV, VH1, BET, MTV2, E!. Thin, beautiful, overtly sexy, rap songs with as much *bleep* as intelligable lyrics. So much glamor. So shallow, so uniform. Scantily clad women in various stages of either undress or blur. Gangsta, white gangsta. And every "star" in this money-powered galaxy has an entourage, a posse.

They are treated as celebrities as well because they 'hang with the man who is off the chain'. In fact, there are personal assistants, valets, butlers, and (to use an antiquated term) manservants who rise to their own level of recognition, moving out beyond their border as a follower - or employee- of the of the rock or hip-hop platinum seller.

I suppose we all could try that. Be drawn to the spotlight like one of many moths, to thrive only in our less than 15 minutes of fame. There are a lot of "one hit wonders" out there..... the ones that are always brought up in a phrase beginning with "...and what ever happened to..........". It is no surprize that our children bounce from one fad to the next, one 'best' friend to the next, one belief to the next, all the while swearing in the absoluteness of their choice. If these are your role models, than nothing can last forever....

No pupil is greater than the teacher Jesus said. That, for the most part of history has been true with few exceptions. What Teacher can we show our children? How can we let them see that we are pupils of that Teacher?

We as Christians have a responsibility to stay out of the limelight. We need to recall the original phrase we now quote when trying to point out incompetency, namely "The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing".

The original context was not about incompetency, but about selfless, anonymous generousity. To paraphrase the text it comes from..... don't flaunt your piety in front of others - have daily private prayer with God; if you chose a discipline of fasting in solidarity with those who have nothing - don't be a drama queen: look neat, pressed and healthy; if you are giving of yourself and your wealth and your talent, do it in silence -- and make it so regular that you are not even conscious you are doing it..... as if your right hand didn't know what your left hand was doing.

Following a fad star onto a beach there would be footprints of the star, the bodyguard, the assistant, the publicist and the posse....and all the fans. A stampede of footprints vaguely going in the same direction in somewhat zigzag formation.

Following in the footsteps of Jesus does not rake in the money or the fame or the glory or the disciples. Our baptismal vows show us to try to walk in Jesus' footprints.... so that if anyone were to look on a beach or a muddy trail they will see only one path and one set of tracks....those of Christ himself.