Ashamed

When we are traveling by car, Cheryl and I enjoy one station on Sirius XM more than all the others. It is called Radio Classics. Programming includes comedies, variety shows, detective shows and other dramatic shows from the 1930s-1960s. Television decreased the popularity of radio programming beginning in the late 1950s, and I am sure the only people interested in Radio Classics today are people who are as old as we are.

My favorites are the police detective shows like Johnny Dollar, Richard Diamond, Broadway Is My Beat, Sam Spade and many others. We also enjoy comedies like Fibber Magee, Life of Riley, Great Gildersleeve, and Burns and Allen. Then, there are the westerns—Hopalong Cassidy, The Cisco Kid, Fort Laramie, Texas Rangers, and the all-time favorite, Gunsmoke.

While traveling to Mississippi this past week, we were listening to Dragnet while my mother snoozed in the backseat. The story was about a scam to collect money from donors who thought they were giving to a crippled children’s home. The scammers were able to get a list of donors from the home, and they would appear unannounced on the doorstep of regular donors. They were fast talkers and convinced the donors to give them cash or checks intended for the crippled children.

Joe Friday and his associate interviewed the lady who ran the home. During the conversation, the lady said that she was ashamed to live in the same city with these crooks. She went on to say why would God allow these crooks to do such a thing to the poor crippled children. Finally, she added this statement: “God should come and punish them. Why doesn’t God do that?” Joe Friday responded: “Maybe God is ashamed also!”

That statement made me do some cogitating. I began to wonder how many times God has been ashamed of something that I have done. This brought me to a time of commitment asking the Lord to help me in my efforts to not make Him ashamed of my actions. That is a big God-sized order considering the sinful nature of man and my own sinful temperament.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8 ESV