The escalating violence in our society is alarming. Brutality ranges all the way from domestic child abuse and spouse battering to unimaginable crimes and senseless murders. As a result, politicians and police chiefs are advocating better crime prevention and stiffer penalties for offenders.

These measures, while having some value, do not get to the underlying source of our social problems. The root problem is a wrong response to God's words and ways.

We see this in Ezekiel 16. God declared that Sodom was destroyed because her citizens responded to His goodness with pride, heartlessness, and all sorts of abominable conduct instead of gratitude and obedience (v.49).

When life is easy, we tend to take God's goodness for granted and focus on the earthly and temporal rather than on the heavenly and eternal. Idleness provides an environment in which pride, self-centeredness, and heartlessness can flourish. Therefore, as we look at all the problems in the world today, instead of calling for civic action to make the world safer it might be well for us to pray, "Lord, help me to be more thankful for Your goodness. I want to be a Christlike influence on those around me."  — Herbert Vander Lugt