Wednesday, October 12, 2011
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It's amazing what a difference a camera can make. Some years ago there was a very popular TV series that lasted for years and kept getting reincarnated, pioneered by a guy named Allen Funt. Now he was pretty well known in his time, and the reason he became well known was one thing. He became the creator of a program called Candid Camera. And he proved the principal over and over again, that the camera can make a big difference. See, he would prove that people do these dumb little things totally unaware that the nation was watching. If they knew that, they never would have done what Allen Funt tricked them into doing. Course, the results of clicking cameras aren't always amusing. Incriminating photos can bring down a presidential candidate or a Christian leader and they have. You can imagine the photographer's victims saying, "If I'd only known they were recording this." Well, why don't you assume they are?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Nothing To Hide."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 13:12-14. "The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not even think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." So this verse is saying, "Hey, it's daytime; don't do nighttime things. Live as if the lights are always on." Now, okay, here's the modern Hutchcraft version of that—live as if the cameras are always running; live as if the video is always recording. Live as if the tape recorder is always catching it.
Would people in Richard Nixon's Oval Office some years ago have said all they said if they knew the tapes were being made? I doubt it. Would certain gangsters have said what they said on the phone if they knew it was going to be played back in court later on? Would certain public figures have been with that woman if they knew those pictures would be displayed for all the world to see?
One of life's unnecessary fears—unnecessary fears—is the fear of discovery. It's kind of like when you're driving along and you're always looking in the rear-view mirror because you know you're speeding, you know you're breaking the law, you know you might get caught, and you can't really totally enjoy the trip. See, life lived in the rear-view mirror is a very, very anxious, stressful way to live. There's such freedom in not having to worry about getting caught. God calls us in this passage to live transparently, without the paralyzing stress of dark secrets. No fear of discovery, because there's nothing to discover.
Are you living in such a way that you have nothing to fear if there's some kind of recorder running in your car, in your motel room, your office when the doors are closed, on your phone? Do you have nothing to worry about if there's a camera covering your activities or someone who's monitoring your Internet activity 24 hours a day? Actually, we're being watched much more than we know. And one day God will, according to Romans 2, "Judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ."
Don't be fooled by the myth of getting away with it. You never do. Live as if someone is recording everything, because Someone is. And enjoy the glorious freedom of living by those three liberating words: nothing to hide.