The following are some comments maybe we ought to “evaluate carefully?”
-“I just know that it must be OK because everybody does it that way.”
-“Well, it is what it is!”
-“Progress requires we do something now!”
-“Well, you do what you’ve got to do!”
-“A few cuts, here and there, won’t really hurt anything.”
Sitting in an airport lounge recently, I overheard the above comments by a businessman. This fellow was justifying his approaches in work to the guy on the other end of the phone line and apparently was being successful. Let us face it, we live in a world where compromised ethics is the norm. If our youth and young adults apply the comments above to their dating lives, you can imagine the behavior being lived out. If career people in their 30s and 40s live with these attitudes in their offices, you can guess how it impacts the work done. If our courts apply these views, what will happen to our society? If hospitals apply these ideas to medical situations, what dangers lurk? When a Christian follows these principles, what is the quality of church witness we leave behind?
A number of years ago, an earthquake killed thousands in central Taiwan. I, like many others, was involved in some of the relief work for the early months that followed this horrifying experience. We brought in water purifiers, dug people out of the rubble, bagged up bodies, fed the hungry, put up tents, and many other things. In the midst of this nightmare, it was found that many of the collapsed buildings had been built with pillars that had empty 5 gallon cans inside them to save on the expense of cement and steel. You see, “doing what you’ve got to do” is simply not good enough when others are hurt! As Christians, our goal must always be to be truthful, fair, and sensitive toward the needs of others….even when it appears there are “short-cuts” available. How are we doing?
以下是一些需要“小心評估”的評論：
﹣「其他人都是這樣做的，所以肯定沒問題。」
﹣「沒有辦法，就是這個樣子了。」
﹣「進步就是要我們立刻行事。」
﹣「做你需要做的事。」
﹣「小小傷害，無傷大礙。」
廣東口語:
– 「人哋都係咁做架啦,冇問題嘅.」
– 「冇計啦,啲嘢係咁㗎啦.」
– 「唔做啲嘢點進步呢?」
– 「你做你要做嘅嘢啦.」
– 「小小受傷好閒啫.」
最近坐在飛機場裡等登機時，我無意聽到兩生意人的以上對話。一位人仕與對方辯解他做事的方式，並且貌似很成功得合理化他的觀點。我們必須承認我們活在一個道德受損的世界裡，認為妥協、折中是正常的。如果我們的年輕人引用以上的態度在他們的感情生活中，你能想像出他們的行為會是怎樣。如果三、四十歲的就業人仕在辦公室有這種態度，你能猜想這會如何影響工作。如果法庭應用這種觀點，我們的社會會變得怎樣？如果醫院把這種概念帶到醫療業務，有多危險呢？當基督徒跟隨這些原則時，教會留下的見證質量如何？
數年前，臺灣中部一個大地震有上千人受害。我與多人一齊參與這場災難的救災工作。我們帶濾水器去當地、把人從瓦礫救出來、把屍體安置好、給飢餓的人飯吃、幫災民搭好帳篷等。在這噩夢中，發現在很多倒塌的建築物柱子裡，為了節省鋼筋水泥的費用，填滿的是大大的空鐵罐。「做你需要做的事」，在他人受傷時，就不夠好了。即使能見到生活中的捷徑，身為基督徒，我們的目標必須是誠實、公平、敏感地對待他人的需要。我們做得如何？