Invisible

          What would you do if you could be invisible?  That's an interesting question that was recently posed by the editorial staff of the LNP, the Lancaster daily newspaper.  How would you respond?   Now be careful, your responses might reveal quite a bit about you and what you really believe and think about.

          The newspaper printed responses from nine different people and they were very interesting and not always surprising.  A 25 year old male said that he would go swimming in the ocean because he has a terrifying unnatural fear of sharks.  He feels that there would be no way that the sharks would know he was there if he were invisible.  Interesting.  I wonder if you were invisible if you would still give off a scent.

          A 44 year old male said that he would observe big corporate business people in meetings to see if they were really doing the right things to benefit people.  Obviously he doesn't trust the corporate world and maybe he has good reason not to trust it.  Their bottom line is profit.  But if he didn't like what he heard, what could he do about it ... especially if he were invisible?  Would the media listen to a voice out of the air with no apparent source?

          Along a similar line, a 45 year old male said he would like to be in the war room of the White House during discussions of ISIS.  Now that sounds very interesting and with the recent lack of White House security you could probably do that, especially if you were invisible.

         A 48 year old man said that he would help save the city by just doing stuff nobody would see him doing.  Now that is an commendable answer but I wonder what he would actually do.  I'm not sure how anyone, visible or invisible, could repair the infrastructure and improve the financial status of city government.  But it would be worth a try.

          Then there were the answers that revealed more of man's real nature - getting something for nothing by breaking the rules.  A 23 year old female said that she'd probably go to see music all the time and get in free and just hang out in cool places that she typically wouldn't be able to.  Hmm, how honest is that?  By the way, if you were invisible would you get cold in a "cool" place?

          A 43 year old female said that she would sneak into a Steelers game.  Again - getting something illegally - for nothing.  If you are invisible would you be bothered by unruly fans who pelt you with beer?   And speaking of beer, a 45 year old male said that he would steal all the beer.  Wow, visible drunks are bad enough, but an invisible drunk?  By the way, if one was invisible, could you follow the beer as it travels through the body?  Now that would be an interesting sight!

          And then there were two more who gave the answers I anticipated ... getting something ... illegally ... for nothing.  A 24 year old female said she'd rob a bank.  She didn't see any other use of being invisible.  And a 22 year old female also said that she would rob a bank and never get caught.  Maybe this sinful activity is one which many of us would consider, but never admit publicly.  The scripture tells us that the heart is desperately wicked.  It is also interesting to note the ages of these two women.  Are they representative of that generation which has grown up without absolutes and moral standards?  I guess the sample size is too small to draw any conclusions like that, but I do find it interesting.

         Now we'll never get to be invisible but it might be more interesting to know what would happen if our hidden thought life would be shared publicly.  That might be very embarrassing.  But someday it will be shared.

          Knowing this, my daily prayer is that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart would always be acceptable in the sight of God.   And that should be our desire ... no matter if we are visible ... or even invisible.