Amusing Ourselves to Death

In August, 2005, a South Korean man identified to the press only as “Lee”, sat down at a computer in an internet café to play video games. For the next 50 hours, he played almost non-stop. He played until he died.

Lee’s mother had sent former work collegues to find him, after he had not returned home. They found him in the cyberspace café and relayed his mother’s message. He replied that he would finish the game and then return home. He passed away a few minutes later.

Heart failure was the culprit. Lee’s death became an international sensation. "We presume the cause of death was heart failure stemming from exhaustion," a provincial police official from Lee’s South Korean province stated.

When I think of Lee, I think of how his life, and death, are warnings to us. As Paul wrote, “Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God” (I Thess. 4:4-5.) THE MESSAGE

Breaking Into Jail

On March 29, 20-year-old Ricky Flowers was stopped by a member of the Garfield Heights, Ohio police department for a traffic violation. (Garfield Heights is a suburb of Cleveland.) Perhaps, knowing he was about to be cited for driving with a suspended license, Flowers fled the scene.

A high-speed chase followed. Suddenly, Flowers pulled his car over, hopped out, and climbed a fence thinking he had escaped. Little did he realize, he was jumping into a women’s prison.

I think a lot of people have had this experience. They think they are escaping a pressing problem, but what they are doing is jumping into Satan’s prison. They are under bondage. Satan’s prison varies. It could be alcohol, it could be drugs, it could be greed, materialism, worry, anxiety, the list goes on and on.

We don’t have to live this way. We can be free from bondage. Paul writes, 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness (Rom. 6:16-18.)

“Gator-guzzling python comes to messy end”

A few years ago, I came across an article on MSNBC with the aforementioned title. A 13-foot Burmese python, who had escaped his owner or been let go in the Florida Everglades, had come upon a six-foot-long alligator and thought he saw a delicious supper. He was mistaken. What he thought would satisfy his appetite, instead created a mess, according to authorities, of horror-movie proportions.

Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor, summarized the catastrophe in this way: the alligator evidently clawed at the python’s stomach as the snake was attempting to digest it. When experts arrived on the scene, the alligator’s legs were protruding from the snake’s midsection. By then, the snake was dead.

Through the years, I have seen folks who thought they found the ideal meal to satisfy their appetites, only to arrive at similar ends. Some swallowed substances that created life-destroying addictions. Others found their insides torn up from worry. Still others burned up internal organs from ingesting anger.

Jesus seemed to understand the human appetite is potentially dangerous and we need to satisfy it in a proper manner. After all, it was Jesus who said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”