In the Bible–and life–human beings are tragically flawed. The idea that people can overcome whatever ails them through hard work and determination is not biblical. Nevertheless, sometimes I catch myself wondering, usually after a few days of nice weather, “Are people really that bad?”
Enter Ira Glass.
Glass is the host of the radio show “This American Life,” one of my all-time faves. I subscribe to the free podcast and listen each week. (If you see me walking around, headphones in, laughing to myself, it’s probably because I’m listening to the show.) If you’re not familiar with the show, each week Glass picks a topic or theme and then explores it through personal stories and interviews–alternately hilariously funny or soul-shakingly tragic. But the show almost always confirms (albeit unintentionally) a key idea of the Bible: People are unbelievably broken and if anyone’s going to get better, it’s gotta come from an Outside Source. In other words, we need a savior.
A recent show, called “The Devil in Me,” talked about people battling personal demons. The whole show is worth a listen, but Act 2, “Vox Diaboli,” will knock your socks off. Through the words of all kinds of “normal people,” you will hear, in their own words, as people talk about the natural human bent towards self-destruction and sin. Amazing insight into the brokenness of the human condition! Only with a proper view of the human problem does the solution Jesus offers make sense. As we say at the church where I work, “That’ll preach!”
To listen, go here and click on “full episode”
PS–also check out the episode from this summer, “The Ten Commandments.” Dave Dickerson’s segment is RADICAL–in the 80s slang sense and in a theological sense. Listen and think about “sanctification.”
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