January 1 - Ike's Bike
January 1
IKE'S BIKE
Judges 17:1-6
1 Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears—here is the silver with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my son!” 3So when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, “I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son, to make a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return it to you.” 4Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a molded image; and they were in the house of Micah. 5The man Micah had a shrine, and made an ephod and household idols; and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. 6In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
"Welcome to the latest episode of Current Culture! My name is Geraldo Winfrey-Raphael, and I'm your host. Today we're talking to ordinary people about morals and values and whose version of right and wrong is ... well, right... or wrong. Our first guest is Ike, a high school student."
Geraldo nods seriously into the camera, then turns and thrusts a microphone toward a teenage boy dressed in black. Geraldo tries to keep up with Ike's purposeful stride as they walk across the school quad.
"You look like an intelligent high school student," Geraldo says. "How do you choose between right and wrong?"
Ike stops walking and looks straight into the camera.
"Right and wrong?" the student says. "There is no 'right' and 'wrong'! Read your Nietzsche, man! Get a grip on Machiavelli! Those words are nothing but the wishful thinking of a society too weak to face the prospect of a godless world and the lack of moral absolutes! That's what Nietzsche said, man! Look it up!"
Ike begins walking again. Geraldo starts jogging to keep up with the young man.
Finally, Ike stops abruptly in front of a bike rack, an expression of shock on his face.
"Is something wrong?" Geraldo says. "Are you all right?"
"My bike! It's gone! Somebody stole my bike!"
Ike throws his arms in the air and begins pacing in front of the bike rack.
"Oh, dude, this is wrong! This is totally wrong!"
"But I thought Nietzsche said ..."
"Aw, shut up, man! Like, Nietzsche never had a Trek 950 with titanium hubs and alloy rims and all kinds of really cool stuff! Oh, this is so wrong!"
Another student approaches, then stops.
"I thought your mom drove you to school this morning," the other student says.
Ike suddenly stops his pacing and looks at the camera.
"Oh," he says. "Yeah. That's right." He shrugs. "Cool."
Ike and his friend walk away. Geraldo faces the camera, then draws a single finger across his throat in a slicing motion.
REFLECT: In the above script, Ike quoted Nietzsche and Machiavelli. These were two philosophers who said that there is no such thing as right and wrong. Their writings had a significant influence on Adolph Hitler and other dictators of the twentieth century. Do you think that Ike really believed what he said about right and wrong? Why or why not? What do you believe about right and wrong?
PRAY: "God, I admit that sometimes I act like there's no such thing as right and wrong. But I don't want to do what's right in my own eyes; I want to do what's right in your eyes. Help me especially in the area of _______________________________________________."