What?

"A woman who lived with a chimpanzee"

"A thirteen year old boy who is now a father"

"A brawl erupts at a high school basketball game in Alabama"

"A man commits suicide in front of the altar in the Crystal Cathedral"

"Mom accused of poisoning baby food"

Is it just me or has our world gone crazy? These are the headlines from today's news cycle. I am not sure my grandmothers would recognize our culture or the world in which we live in.

Both of my grandmothers led simple lives and would be appalled by the images and sounds of what goes on in America.

Where did the culture begin the slide into insanity? Where did the motion toward commotion orgininate?

I am not sure how to answer either of these questions. But I do know that things are changing and they seem to be changing for the worse. I am not sounding the "panic alarm" but there are things happening today that twenty years ago would have never happened.

Perhaps they would have happened but they would never have been flaunted on the front pages of newspapers and magazines.

Today everything is reported and we have become anesthetized to things that would have shocked us just a few years ago.

What is the solution? Here are several options:

1. Ignore it and perhaps it will go away.

2. Engage in a dialogue with the insanity

3. Panic and express cynicism

4. Yearn for the "good old days"

5. Be still and recognize that God is in every situation and circumstance.

The reason I know about these options is because I have exercised all of them at different times.

Today I am saddened by what I read on the pages of USA Today and recognize that I have my work cut out for me if I am going to be a genuine Christ-follower.