Do times change?

A few weeks ago, I received a book entitled Look Here, Lord: Meditations for Today's Woman by Clarissa Smart. Initially, I'm tempted to brush the book off as anachronistic because it was published in 1972. How can this author say anything to me, a woman living forty years later, that I could possible take away from this book?

Surprisingly enough, many of the meditations do still speak to me. Namely, Smart wrote a piece on organization. She begins by discussing how our houses never seem quite organized, that we tend to hold onto things that are unnecessary such as letters to remind us of past grudges and offenses. When we remove these unnecessary items from our lives, we find ourselves freer to embrace the blessings God has bestowed on us.

Apparently, people have not changed much in the last 40 years because many individuals I know hold onto everything. We find it difficult to throw something away that was once extremely important to us. For example, my husband no longer teaches and will never return to the profession, but he finds it difficult to dispose of his teaching materials. He worked so hard to accumulate those materials. He doesn't want to just pitch them. However, maybe it would serve him better to pitch them and finally let go of the past because as Smart reminds us all things do pass. Amazing how a book published forty years ago can pinpoint a problem so many of us still possess.

What would you do?

Someone shows up at your front door with a box. They say that if you push the button someone you don't know will die, and you will receive a million dollars. What do you do? This is the premise for the 2009 movie The Box which is based on the short story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson. Although the movie was mediocre, the ideas explored are compelling.

In a world where we are all stretched financially, I would have to imagine a great temptation to push the button and solve all of our financial problems. However, we have to think about the consequences of our actions. Even if we don't know the person who dies, we have to remember that in some way, humans are all connected, which becomes the lesson the characters learn in the movie.

I would like to think that if someone comes to my house with this dilemma that I could strongly say "No! I will not be this selfish!" But honestly, I don't really know if I could resist the temptation. I hope I would.