Published on 09/21/2006

Commentary

According to this morning's New York Times, Americans are as interested today in online political news and information as we were during the peak of the 2004 presidential campaign. Twenty-six million adult Internet users sought such information on a typical day in August. Interest in political news appears to be growing faster than the desire for general news. I must be the exception that proves the rule.

To me, when a panda bites a man, that's news. When the man bites back, that's big news. Both happened two days ago at the Beijing Zoo, according to today's Associated Press reports. A drunken Chinese migrant worker climbed into a panda enclosure to touch the animal. He woke it up; it bit him; and he bit it back. The man is being treated in the hospital. The panda is resting quietly in his enclosure, but is said to be recovering from shock. I never realized that we build cages to protect the bears.

This story interests me as well. Are you old enough to remember rotary phones? Tragically, I am. This morning's USA Today website reminds us that back in that day, you had to rent your phone from the telephone company. In 1986, AT&T gave customers who were leasing their phones the option to continue doing so. A widow in Canton, Ohio, accepted their offer. Forty-two years after she first leased her rotary phone, her family estimates that she has paid $14,000 in fees. Outraged when they found her bills, they quickly bought her a new push-button phone. But she liked her rotary phone better.

Human (or panda) interest stories always interest me the most. Political fortunes rise and fall, but a $14,000 rotary phone will still make the news. That's because human nature doesn't change. We still want to keep our marriages together and raise our kids. When I first saw the Egyptian pyramids up close, I realized that the pharaohs were as afraid of death as any of us. We all need help, home, and hope. And we always will.

People sometimes ask me why they should live by a book which is 2,000 years old. We don't speak Latin or worship Zeus--shouldn't we keep up with the times? My answer is always the same: the perennial nature of human nature makes the Bible as relevant today as when it was first inspired. Adam and Eve were tempted by the same desire for power which motivates greed and graft today. The Tower of Babel was not the last example of the edifice complex. Jacob and Esau got along about as well as most brothers these days. Your Father has preserved his word for 20 centuries, for you.

J. I. Packer called the Bible "God preaching." Have you listened to his voice yet today?