What do you believe in?

The recent shooting rampage in Virginia Tech is horrible. An angry Asian student shot down 33 students in cold blood and wounded scores of others.

They are calling this the worst shooting in the US.

Schools are supposed to be a safe sanctuary for learning yet how is it that young kids get killed when a student went wild and went on a shooting rampage?

This got me thinking. Maybe it is a reflection of what we all believe in.

What do we believe in? This is a crucial question.

A song with its beautiful melody became a top hit during its time.

Let me give you a sample of its lyrics.

I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows.

I believe that somewhere in the darkest night, a candle glows.

I believe that every time a new born baby cry, or touch a leaf or see the sky, I believe….I believe….What does it imply?

The lyrics seem inspiring but when you get right down to really studying it; it means absolutely nothing. Don’t get me wrong. I like the song and the lyrics wax poetic. Maybe it speaks about hope but you don’t just hope in a vacuum. What do you hope for and to whom do you pin your hopes on? Somehow the song reflects the philosophy of the world today. We seem to believe in something but we end up believing in nothing.

Famous Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias was right all along.

I was listening to one of his tapes and was fascinated at how incisive he was.

In one of his teachings he quoted Steve Turner, a journalist writing in England many years ago. Turner sarcastically gives a critique on what the world is about today. It’s got something to do with what we all believe in.

Turner says:

We today believe in Marx, Freud and Darwin.

We believe everything is okay, as long you don’t hurt anyone to the best of your definition of hurt and to the best of your definition of knowledge.

We believe in sex before during and after marriage.

We believe in the therapy of sin. We believe that taboos are taboos.

We believe that everything is getting better despite evidence to the contrary.

The evidence must be investigated and you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there’s something in horoscope, UFO’s and bent spoon.

Jesus was a good man just like Buddha, Mohammed and ourselves.

He was a good moral teacher although we think His good morals were really bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same. At least the ones we read were, they all believe in love and goodness. They only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, god and salvation.

We believe that after death comes nothing. Because when you ask the dead what happened? They say nothing. If death is not the end then the dead have lied, then it’s compulsory heaven for all. Except perhaps Hitler, Stalin and Genghis Khan.

We believe in Masters and Johnson’s.

What’s selected is average, what’s average is normal and what’s normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.

We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed.

Americans should beat their guns into tractors and the Russians will be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good it’s only his behavior that lets him down. This is the fault of society, society is the fault of conditions and conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him and reality will adapt accordingly. The universe will readjust, history will alter, we believe that there is no absolute truth except the truth that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creed and the flowering of individual thought.

And then he adds this postscript.

If chance be the father of all flesh, disaster is as rainbow in the sky.

And when you hear a state of emergency, sniper kills 10, troops on rampage, youths go looting, bomb blast school it is but the sound of man worshipping his maker.

This originates as far back as Eden. In our own beginnings when man decided to live with the idea that we can somehow live in Eden with each voice determining what is right and what is wrong. The truth is that we cannot determine by ourselves what is wrong and what is right. We need a set of absolute truths revealed to us by the Moral Lawgiver or else we will believe in anything and everything and we end up believing in nothing.

You cannot come up with your own set of right and wrong. Not in life and not in business.

“We’re just waiting for another signature and the check will be ready” is not acceptable when there is no intention to pay.

Promising to deliver when you know it will never happen on time is not truthful.

A little padding of the expense account doesn’t make it acceptable even when all the rest of the sales people are doing it.

Working on some personal stuff on company time using company property is not appropriate even when nobody finds out.

A little flirting here and there or an affair once in a while is not normal and it’s not right.

The world today is so messed up it does not know what to believe in anymore.

The shooting incident is sad and I hope it will not happen in our schools.

Maybe it’s time for us to assess what we all believe in.

(You can listen to Francis Kong through his radio program “Business Matters” aired 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. daily over 98.7 dzFE-FM ‘The Master’s Touch’, the classical music station.)