Lessons of Faith from CSI

I was watching CSI tonight. Yes, I love all those crime drama shows! So the one tonight had this guy who had been freaking out and ended up dying on an airplane. As they begin to investigate the evidence is telling quite a different story from the passengers. They also find out that the guy was suffering from an undiagnosed condition that was causing high fever and headache among other things. Skip a whole lot of stuff. In the end they find out that five of the other passengers killed the guy. He had grabbed the exit door handle in his delirious state and they tacked him away from it, but then went too far and killed the guy.

So after they discover all of this, they are sitting around talking about whether or not they could kill someone if they or their family was in harms way. They then ask Grissom if he would be able to kill someone. He says he can't answer the question and then explains himself. He says the issue wasn't an issue of protection. If during the whole scenario someone would have taken a moment to ask the victim if he was ok, there never would have been an issue. But instead they all just assumed that because he was acting crazy that he was just a jerk and possibly a terrorist, when he was really just fighting a migraine and delirious. Grissom said that it took five people to kill the guy, but would have only taken one person to save him.

Wow, this brings up a couple of interesting issues. We often judge people by their actions. I won't say this is totally wrong, the Bible says that "you will know them by their fruits"(Matthew 7:15-20), but at the same time it is important to remember that many times there are things going on behind the scenes that we haven't seen.

I know it happens ALOT with kids! Sometimes parents or caregivers can seem very impatient when you see them at the store or somewhere, but you haven't seem every other time that child ignored them or threw a fit that day. I remember one day at work when I was in the two-year-old class. For a while in the evenings it was a "tradition" to go get a drink of water from outside. Now the kids didn't really need a drink, it was just fun. So one day when we were doing this one of the kids was acting up so I wouldn't let him get a drink. Another parent saw me telling him he couldn't have a drink and mentioned it to the assistant director. She came and asked about it and I explained, not big deal. The point, the parent was right to wonder about it, but at the same time she didn't have all of the information so she couldn't make an accurate judgment.

The show also reminds us that the action or inaction of one person really can make a difference. If one person had taken a couple of seconds to ask if something was wrong, the whole situation could have been avoided. Where are those moments in our own life? It may not be quite as dramatic, but how can we stand in the gape for someone. How can we love someone when no one else has the time? How can we provide for someone when no one else has taken the time to notice?

Isn't that what Jesus is talking about when he says "or I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' " (Matthew 25:31-46) None of those are really hard, they just take on person noticing the need of someone else and choosing to do something about it.