Watchfulness

In an article in Building Church Leaders, Drew Dyck writes:

Hi, my name is Drew and I’m a helicopter parent.

Well, I’m a helicopter parent in recovery. I still get a lump in my throat when I agree to let me 12-year-old son walk to the convenience store on his own. I clench my fists as I see my 10-year-old daughter gliding on her bike through our neighborhood, even with a helmet securely on her head.

Of course it’s OK to shield your kids from harm; that’s just what parents too. But that healthy instinct can go too far. Parents who try to “nerf the world” for their children ironically end up doing more harm than good—producing young adults immobilized by fear because they see danger lurking around every corner.

Helicopter parenting can also be a sin. In a recent article, “An Anxious Generation,” Carrie McKean writes: “What we call caution, God may call sin: a clamoring for control and a refusal to trust God with the children he has entrusted to us…. Jesus told us not to worry, but worry is our culture’s parenting default. It’s harming our kids.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

There is value in giving kids ample unsupervised playtime and just more autonomy in general. We need to pray, “Jesus, help me let go” to get our nervous fear under control and allow our children to experience the spark of accomplishment and confidence. Mamy verses emphasize God's love and care for children, and encourage parents to trust Him with their children's well-being (Matt. 18:10; Matt. 19:14; Mark 10:16; Luke 18:16).

Alexander George writes in Popular Mechanics:

Ready for the one genius tip that will make you a better winter driver? Here it is: Look where you want to go. Yep—that’s it. It’s so simple, and so effective, that every pro driver does it. But it’s so unintuitive that you have to practice to get it right.

That’s because our very reasonable instinct is to instead focus on where we don’t want to go. When the most urgent threat to your bodily safety and insurance premium is the car ahead of you or a guardrail, you watch that thing. But when you’re at speed, you involuntarily direct yourself towards wherever you’re focused. It’s formally known as target fixation, a term you’ll see in literature for fighter pilots and motorcycle racers.

Rather than watch the bumper of the car you’re following on the highway, or a guardrail between you and steep cliff, look further in time. Fix your eyes on the middle of your lane, at the spot you want to be several seconds later, even if that means ignoring the car in front of you. Your peripheral vision will still catch any unexpected braking or road debris.

It took me a full day at a winter driving school to believe. On a track made of snow and ice, I drove a Lexus LX into a turn with too much speed and deliberately lost traction. Most runs, the rear end would fishtail, sometimes turning me completely around. A few times, usually after the instructor disabled the stability control and ABS, I’d end up sliding almost perpendicular to the direction I was pointing. Even in a controlled environment, it’s terrifying.

The instructor correctly pointed out that I was looking right at the wall of snow I wanted to not hit. “Look where you want to go,” he said, and fixed almost everything I was doing wrong.

I haven’t found any activity where this doesn’t help — surfing, cycling, skiing. Try it the next time you’re out on the road.

Possible Preaching Angle:

In the same way, when faced with a temptation, instead of always looking at the temptation, bad habit, or trouble that you want to avoid, “look at Jesus” (Heb. 12:2). Fixing your eyes on our Savior and focusing on your relationship with him will get you safely through whatever trouble, temptation, or worry is troubling you.

An investigation by the French newspaper Le Monde revealed a potential security threat for several world leaders. The confidential movements of France’s president Macron, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and former president Trump -- even after two assassination attempts on Trump – were easily tracked online through a fitness app used by their bodyguards.

The security agents were found using the Strava app, which is primarily used by runners and cyclists to record their activities and share their workouts. The data it collects can also be used to track users' locations.

The newspaper identified a total of 44 U.S., French, and Russian security agents, all responsible for presidential security, who had public Strava accounts. Their movements, including professional trips, were therefore communicated online.

The U.S. Secret Service said in a statement to Le Monde that while staff are not allowed to use personal electronic devices while on duty, “we do not prohibit an employee’s personal use of social media off-duty.” However, they added that “affected personnel have been notified" and that they "will review this information to determine if any additional training or guidance is required.”

These potential security breaches illustrate the risks associated with tech companies and consumer data. "Companies love our data, and we love the product, so we give away the data for free," said Ibrahim Baggili, professor of cybersecurity at Louisiana State University. "The government really needs to start cracking down on how data can be used and how long it can be retained."

Possible Preaching Angle:

God gives us the freedom to decide how to live, but we must consider how our choices affect others.

In a southern Illinois town, an unfortunate incident resulted in a public park complex being indefinitely closed to the public. Unlike in many other areas in the United States, the crisis was not a brutal heat wave, but something more immediately dangerous: a giant 100-foot sinkhole that swallowed a good chunk of the soccer field.

Authorities said the initial investigation indicated the sinkhole at Gordon Moore Park happened as a result of an active limestone mine deep underground. Alton Mayor David Goins said, “No one was on the field at the time, and no one was hurt, and that’s the most important thing.”

The next step in remediation is a stage of investigative drilling. Mayor Goins said, "Ensuring the safety of our residents and restoring Gordon Moore Park to its full capacity are my top priorities. We will continue to work diligently with all involved parties to achieve this goal."

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sinkholes remind us of three things: 1) Something can look good on the outside, when underneath major problems have been going on for years, and disaster’s about to happen. 2) Our lives are affected by little choices, which have cumulative effects that can result in either moral strength or moral disaster. 3) As Jesus taught, a life needs to be built on a solid foundation (Matt 7:24-27). Many people have deep voids in their lives caused by ignoring what type of foundation they are building their lives on. But when the foundations are shaken, only believers will be secure (Ps 46:1-2).

The Financial Times had a story on a fascinating study showing that our language has been growing more pessimistic. Whereas at the time of the scientific and industrial revolutions there was a shift towards a language with more frequent use of terms related to progress, in recent years there’s been a shift towards words associated with caution, worry, and risk.

The author John Burn-Murdoch writes:

[Researchers] found a marked increase in the use of terms related to progress and innovation starting in the early 17th century. This supports the idea that “a cultural evolution in the attitudes towards the potential of science” [to promote the industrial revolution] and its economic take-off.

[But] extending the same analysis to the present, a striking picture emerges: over the past 60 years the west has begun to shift away from the culture of progress, and towards one of caution, worry and risk-aversion, with economic growth slowing over the same period. The frequency of terms related to progress, improvement, and the future has dropped by about 25 percent since the 1960s, while those related to threats, risks and worries have become several times more common.

U.S. politics continue to be a chaotic subject, and a new poll finds the majority of Americans are rapidly losing faith in their country’s leaders. Over seven in 10 people say there’s no one they trust to save them from an end-of-the-world event.

If you’re thinking of creating your own Doomsday checklist, researchers found that the most popular items people are stocking up on include water (41%), warm clothing (39%), and extra food (38%). Additionally, one in 10 think they’ll need some extra cash when the world ends.

To decipher which U.S. states are prepping for doomsday, surveyors examined the extent of Americans’ preparations and survival plans. Leading the pack, Nebraska emerged as the most prepared, with 51% of respondents indicating they’ve begun or are considering doomsday preparations. Montana and New Mexico also rank highly on the list of states preparing for catastrophic events, with 50% and 47% of their residents, respectively, making or contemplating preparations.

Financially, the majority of respondents invested between $1,000 to $4,999 in disaster preparations, with a few in states like Montana and New Mexico splurging up to $10,000. For those feeling the urgency to prepare, researchers emphasize the importance of storing water, food, shelter, medical supplies, and hygiene items.

George Orwell’s book 1984 is one of our society’s most frequently referenced illustrations of what life would be like under an authoritarian government. In the book, citizens of the fictional nation of Oceania are under constant government surveillance, including in their own homes. Devices called telescreens display propaganda and record peoples’ actions. This allows the government to monitor people even in what should be the most private place they know—their homes.

Historically in the US, the Fourth Amendment protects Americans from "unreasonable searches and seizures" by the government, acknowledging the "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects." It is a bedrock principle of the Bill of Rights.

But a new survey reveals that an astonishing number of Americans, particularly younger Americans, would be comfortable throwing this fundamental protection on the ash heap of history. The Cato Institute survey of Americans finds:

29% of Americans aged 18 to 29 respond affirmatively when asked, “Would you favor or oppose the government installing surveillance cameras in every household to reduce domestic violence, abuse, and other illegal activity?”

20% of Millennials between the ages of 30 and 44 also want everyone watched.

However, among Americans 45 and older, support for such totalitarian surveillance drops considerably to 6%.

From Ivy League campuses to the digital domains of Facebook, there is an Orwellian sense of perpetual emergency. There is an irrational fear that misinformation and hate speech will overwhelm society unless every utterance is subject to a censor’s scrutiny.

If these trends continue, the US may confront a very different privacy landscape in the future. It is possible that at some point, the American public will be open to extreme government overreach.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Christians might think that if we aren’t doing anything wrong what does it matter if we are being watched? But do you spank your children? Might some government official somewhere want to recast that as abuse? Do you teach your children that God made us male and female? Do you insist that marriage is between one man and one woman? What might some in the government think about that? To be constantly monitored is to be constantly assessed. And knowing, as we do, that our governments don’t measure right and wrong by God’s standards, we should fear the prospect.

Do you have something to hide? A new survey finds that 82% of people admit to snooping through someone else’s devices. Moreover, the most likely Americans to go snooping is a person’s romantic partner or their ex.

According to a poll of more than 1,000 people, those who go snooping around may have a reason to always be so suspicious. A shocking 53% claim they’ve found something incriminating or concerning while going through someone else’s device. The most common thing people find is evidence that their significant other is cheating or flirting with other people. In fact, 70% say they’ve discovered evidence of digital flirting or in-person cheating after going through someone’s device.

Nearly nine in 10 snoopers go straight to their target’s messages, e-mails, or social media direct messages. Nearly half (44%) check out a person’s photos while snooping and 38% read through their target’s browser history. Interestingly, more than one in three have no regrets about snooping on another person.

Even though 82% of Americans admit to snooping through another person’s device, most are apparently expert digital spies. 81% claim they’ve never been caught while snooping through someone’s device.

Women are more likely to say they snoop (88%) in comparison to men (77%). Moreover, women were also less likely to regret snooping through someone’s device. Only one in 10 respondents say they’ve never looked through someone else’s device. For everyone else, 25% say they find “something significant most or every time” they go snooping around.

On August 27, 1883, the Earth let out a noise louder than any it has made since. It was 10:02 a.m. when the sound emerged from the island of Krakatoa, which sits between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. It was heard 2,000 miles away in Western Australia and even 3,000 miles away in the Indian Ocean Island of Rodrigues. In all, it was heard in over 50 different geographical locations.

Think just how crazy this is. It’s like being in Boston and clearly hearing a noise coming from Dublin, Ireland. Travelling at the speed of sound it takes a noise about four hours to cover that distance. This is the most distant sound that has ever been heard in recorded history.

So, what could possibly create such an earth-shatteringly loud bang? A volcano on Krakatoa had just erupted with a force that tore the island apart, emitting a plume of smoke that reached 17 miles high. This explosion created a deadly tsunami with waves over a hundred feet in height. One hundred sixty-five coastal villages were entirely destroyed. In all, it is estimated the death toll was between 36,000 and 120,000 people.

The British ship Norham Castle was 40 miles from Krakatoa at the time of the explosion. The ship’s captain wrote in his log, “So violent are the explosions that the eardrums of over half my crew have been shattered. My last thoughts are with my dear wife. I am convinced that the Day of Judgement has come.”

A barometer at the Batavia gasworks (100 miles away from Krakatoa) registered 172 decibels of sound pressure, an unimaginably loud noise. A jackhammer emits about 100 decibels while standing near a jet engine the level is 150 decibels. The human threshold for pain is near 130 decibels. The Krakatoa explosion registered 172 decibels at 100 miles from the source.

Amazingly, for as many as five days after the explosion, weather stations around the globe observed this unprecedented spike in pressure recurring approximately every 34 hours. That is roughly how long it takes sound to travel around the entire planet. In all, the pressure waves from Krakatoa circled the globe three to four times in each direction.

Possible Preaching Angle:

When the Lord returns, the trumpet sound will be heard around the world. Everyone who has ever lived, both alive and dead, will hear and respond to the sound.

Rabbis in Israel have spent many years searching for a qualified red heifer. Finally in September of 2022, a Texas man has delivered five red heifers to four Israeli rabbis so the young cows can be slaughtered and burned to produce the ash necessary for a ritual purification prescribed in Numbers 19:2–3.

Some Jews believe the ritual is a step toward the reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Some Christians believe that “third temple” will set the stage for the Antichrist.

Editor’s Note: The red heifers must be monitored for defects by the rabbis until they are three-years-old. At that time, if unblemished, they would be suitable for use as sacrifices in the red heifer ritual. The Mishnah, which is a written embodiment of Jewish oral tradition, teaches that only nine red heifers were sacrificed from the time of Tabernacle worship until the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 AD.

During the late-Medieval period, London had a strange law on the books—each entry gate into the city had to keep a musician on duty. This could be a dangerous job—city gates were where attackers and other threatening outsiders first appeared. It’s like border patrol nowadays, but they gave the job to musicians.

As strange as it sounds, musicians took charge of many essential services back then. These hired municipal minstrels started showing up everywhere in Europe around the year 1370. They typically played wind instruments—including trumpets, trombones, fifes, bagpipes, and recorders—as well as percussion.

To the modern mind, musical skills and police responsibilities have little in common, but in an earlier age the two roles often overlapped. Musicians not only helped defend the city gate but might also be required to patrol streets at night. In Norwich in 1440 a tax was instituted to pay the waits for their watch—and these musicians were required to take an oath of office. In Germany, a minstrel was expected “to acquit himself well as a swordsman.”

Why musicians? The most obvious answer is that musicians were ideal first responders because they could sound the alarm in case of a major disturbance. Certainly, a loud horn or drum helps in that regard. This signaling capacity of musical instruments also explains their longstanding use in military operations.

Possible Preaching Angles:

In the same way, every follower of Jesus is called to stay awake, to stay at our post, to guard and protect, and pray for the “city gate” where the Lord has posted us.

Many Jerusalem residents believe not only that the Messiah will return, but that his arrival is imminent--so imminent they have taken legal precautions to ensure they can return to Jerusalem immediately upon his return.

In apartment contracts around the city, there are clauses stipulating what will happen to the apartment if or when the Jewish Messiah comes. Using something called a “Messiah Clause,” the contracts stipulate that, in the event of the coming of the Moshiach, or Jewish redeemer, the lease “may be immediately terminated at the will of the landlord.” The owners, generally religious Jews living abroad, are concerned that he will arrive, build a third temple, and turn Israel into paradise--and they will be stuck waiting for their apartment tenants' contracts to run out before they can move back.

It is prophesied in the Jewish scriptures that there will be no more war, murder, or theft, the Jerusalem Temple will be rebuilt, and all the Jews will return to the land of Israel upon his arrival.

There is no count of how many leases in Jerusalem contain such a clause. But although not standard, the Messiah clause is requested enough that every Jerusalem property manager and real estate lawyer contacted by reporters had heard of it, and all except one had dealt with it firsthand.

The fact is, with only biblical prophecy and the conjecture of religious leaders upon which to rely for sketches of the next world, the level of zeal surrounding the associated legal and spiritual preparations is astonishing. Perhaps it’s all a safety net, just in case the scriptural forecast ends up being correct, but what a statement of faith, nonetheless.

The opinion among the property managers and real estate lawyers was unanimous that their clients would know the Messiah when they saw him. Sarah Eiferman, a real estate agent said, “When he comes, we’ll know. It’s in the Old Testament.”

A Cincinnati Reds baseball fan Jacob Kingsley told reporters, “(As a dad) you have to always be expecting the unexpected and be ready for anything to be flying out of whatever.” He should know. On Tuesday, April 26th, 2022, Jacob and his wife took their 11-month-old son Shepherd to his first Cincinnati Reds game. Jacob told his wife before the game he would protect their son if a foul ball came close to their seats, which were located about 15 rows from the field. Ms. Kingsley said she was anxious about the ball hitting their son and told her husband to be on constant lookout for foul balls. She said, “The entire game I was like, ‘Are you watching, are you watching?’”

Then a foul ball actually zoomed in their direction. Shepherd was strapped to his father’s chest in a baby carrier and was enjoying a bottle when a foul ball popped over the protective net and headed in their direction. “When I saw the ball, I was like, ‘OK, this is my time,’” Jacob said in an interview. “I gotta step up.”

The ball continued flying in the direction of Jacob, who was using his left hand to feed his son his bottle. His right hand, however, was free. “It was just coming right towards me, and I was like, ‘I can’t not try to catch it,’” said the 26-year-old Cincinnati resident. “So I just reached my hand out—there wasn’t anybody right next to me—and I made the catch.”

People on social media praised Jacob for his deft catch. “Bottle didn’t even come out. Legend,” one user tweeted. Another said: “Highlight of the Reds season so far.”

One of the ways that Meredith Holt-Caldwell stays in contact with her 80-year-old mother Denyse Holt is through their newest daily ritual, comparing scores in the popular online word game Wordle. So, when Denyse didn’t send her word grid one morning, and didn’t respond to any of her text messages, Meredith grew concerned.

As it turns out, she was right to be concerned. Authorities say that early that morning, a man presumed to be mentally ill, broke into Denyse’s home and threatened to harm her with a pair of scissors. She told reporters, “I didn’t think I was going to live. I was in shock. I was trying to survive.”

Denyse’s silence prompted Meredith to call police in the area to request a welfare check, which escalated into an hours-long standoff with local law enforcement. Eventually, a SWAT team broke through the door and subdued Davis with a stun gun, taking him into custody. Davis was eventually charged with home invasion, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated assault against a peace officer.

Despite being held in captivity for over 17 hours, Holt was uninjured upon rescue. “I’m very lucky,” she said.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God can use even trivial things to help engineer our rescue from life-threatening dangers and troubles.

Reporter Melissa Daniels was walking across the street to cover a council meeting at City Hall when she was struck by a white SUV. The impact knocked her 20 feet in the air and landed her in the hospital with various life-threatening injuries. Daniels remembers, “My head cracked on the pavement super, super hard. I still remember the sound of my skull hitting that pavement. It haunts me in my sleep.”

The numbers bear out an inconvenient truth: Daniels was not alone in danger. According to transportation consultants, pedestrian deaths increased by 50% between 2009 and 2019. One of the reasons why is that SUVs have become the vehicle of choice for a large percentage of US drivers. Not only are more Americans driving SUVs, but the vehicles themselves have gotten larger and larger.

The problems with heavier and larger vehicles are compounded by lowered passenger visibility, which is typically obscured by larger heights and grill sizes. Graphic designer Andy Arthur recently compared the dimensions of a 1942 M4 Sherman tank with a 2021 Ford Ranger Wildtrack, and found that in length, the two are nearly identical (17.7 feet vs. 19 feet).

Because Daniels herself drives an SUV, she hopes that other SUV drivers will take more responsibility for the additional dangers their vehicles pose on the roadway. She says, “I just try to be grateful that it wasn’t worse, because I see the statistics about how many people die because of traffic crashes. And they seem to me to be very needless deaths.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Large vehicles can give us a false sense of security and cause us to pay less attention to those around us. God wants us to be concerned not just with our own safety, but that of those around us, especially those who are less privileged.

Vince Patton couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was surfing YouTube when he found a video of a Tesla driver playing a video game on the car’s touchscreen dashboard. Tesla officials say the feature was added to help drivers pass the time while their cars are docked in charging stations. But Patton was shocked because the driver was playing the video game while the car was in motion.

Patton is also a Tesla owner. Shocked, and also curious, Patton got in his own Tesla Model 3 and headed over to an empty parking lot in a remote area to test it out for himself. He said, “I was just dumbfounded that, yes, sure enough, this sophisticated video game came up.” Not only was he able to load up games but he even surfed the web on the onboard browser. He said, “Somebody’s going to get killed. It’s absolutely insane.”

Patton took his concerns to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. He wrote in a complaint “NHTSA needs to prohibit all live video in the front seat and all live interactive web browsing while the car is in motion. Creating a dangerous distraction for the driver is recklessly negligent.”

An NHTSA spokesperson made this statement: “We are aware of driver concerns and are discussing the feature with the manufacturer. The Vehicle Safety Act prohibits manufacturers from selling vehicles with design defects posing unreasonable risks to safety.”

When contacted, representatives from Tesla were unavailable for comment.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Part of wisdom is learning how to avoid temptations that can distract us from our primary calling, or worse, put our safety and wellbeing in jeopardy.

As of May, 2021, the US earthquake early warning system can issue earthquake alerts to cellphone users in California, Oregon, and Washington. The MyShake app is an early warning system that aims to let people know about incoming shaking, so they can have at least a few seconds to find a safe spot to ride out the earthquake. The alert system is successful because communications systems are now faster than the speed of shaking waves moving through the ground.

The earthquake early warning system could also give residents in the Pacific Northwest as much as 80 seconds of warning ahead of shaking from a magnitude nine earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. This is a monstrous fault zone off the West Coast. This fault last ruptured in such a quake on Jan. 26, 1700, and sent catastrophic tsunamis not only to the Pacific Northwest, but thousands of miles away to Japan.

The earthquake early warning system got a bit of a test run in Los Angeles County last September when a magnitude 4.5 earthquake hit the South El Monte area. This triggered an alert which was sent to 2.2 million mobile devices.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The Bible is an early warning system for the devastating judgment about to jolt the entire world. Those who listen can take shelter before it strikes (Mark 13:8; Luke 21:11).

According to Tik Tok user Allison Wit, her recent dream honeymoon had a surprise ending. Unfortunately, it was not a good surprise. In a series of videos that racked up tens of thousands of views, Allison explained that she and her husband took a vacation to Barbados and had a great time. Only after they returned did they realize something was wrong when her husband’s feet started showing signs of a strange itchy rash.

After being referred to a doctor specializing in infectious diseases, they found out the awkward truth. Apparently, the combination of new flip-flops that gave his feet blisters and a beach with a number of cats created an opening for a type of hookworm that’s normally found in cat feces. The man went on vacation and came home with worms in his feet.

Nevertheless, Allison and her husband’s saga came with a happy ending--their insurance covered the $5,000 treatment. On reflection, she still loved her time in Barbados and wouldn’t mind going back. Many of her fellow Tik-Tok users, however, were less than enthused about the prospect of a tropical vacation. For example, Chloe Amerson wrote: "New fear unlocked."

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sin can burrow its way in to our habits and motivations, even in situations that seem innocent and harmless. Only with consistent watchfulness and cleansing can we free ourselves from these unwanted spiritual parasites.

In the 1960s, towns along the northeast coast of Japan began erecting seawalls to withstand waves of about 30 feet (the height of a terrible tsunami that struck in 1933). The walls were an eyesore everywhere, but they were especially disliked in the village of Fudai.

Kotoko Wamura was the mayor of Fudai when the town began planning its seawall. Wamura had been a young man when the 1933 tsunami wiped out his home town. And he also remembered the stories of an even larger tsunami (50 feet), one that had struck in 1896.

On one side of the city, the mayor built a huge flood gate where the Fudai river meets the coast. And on the other side, he constructed a tower seawall at a height of 51 feet, the tallest seawall on the NE coast. Residents who lived in the shadow of the wall were furious, unconvinced they needed a wall so expensive and so ugly, blocking their ocean view. But Wamura wouldn't back down.

Opinions about the mayor and the wall changed on Friday March 11 2011, when a tsunami, described by one resident as "a black wave, darker than a nightmare" struck Japan. Towns up and down the coast were wiped out, but not Fudai. The wall, once derided and despised, held back an ocean of death and destruction.

One resident, Ms. Odow, owns a home right behind the seawall. Recognizing that the project was initially hated by the residents, a reporter asked what the residents thought of the mayor now. She responded, “They appreciate the mayor now ... [he is] the hero of Fudai.”