With our hatred of thieves, one would think that finally we have a commandment Podcast 36 Full Measure
Introduction
Welcome to Podcast #36
These Podcasts all come from a series of 4 books I have written entitled In Defense of Christianity.
Today’s Podcast is taken from the endnotes of Chapter 8, Volume III, Dishonesty. This Podcast is entitled “Thou Shalt Not Steal.”
Monologue
Example of My Mother
We all have debts to our mothers that can't really be repaid. My mother (along with my father) worked in the cotton mill from midnight till eight and slept during the mornings and early evenings. I remember once she and I were walking down Main Street in Spartanburg, South Carolina. I must have been very small because she still held me by the hand. To my embarrassment she kept that up long after it was necessary. Pappy Gault, a local boxing celebrity, stepped out of a hotel in front of us. My heart jumped when mother pointed him out. As we passed the hotel, I saw a pocketful of unguarded change lying on the steps. I said, "Mother, I better pick that money up before someone else does." It seemed like a perfectly logical conclusion to me. It was clear that someone had been recently sitting on the steps and the change had fallen out of his pocket. I suppose my intent was to pick it up before the owner got back though I don't remember being that calculating. I was more worried about those other unscrupulous skimble-skambles like me walking along the street. But mother neither slowed down nor looked at the steps. She pulled me firmly and authoritatively by the hand and said, "No. It's not yours!" She didn't elaborate. It was absolute and matter of fact which was always her nature. There is a world of difference between a lecture on honesty and the absolute definitive statement, "No! It's not yours!" To a child a reprimand has a kind of 'here and now' feel that generates only fleeting guilt like a morning mist. Its evaporating authority only deals with the present crisis and doesn't spread to the afternoon sunshine and future opportunities. Whereas the statement, "No! It's not yours!” has a kind of immunity to time and place and carries a universal authority that reaches out over the rest of your life. It established my idea of honesty forever, and I never escaped that statement.
I am now approaching eighty years old. A few years ago, I saw some silver coins in the parking lot leading from Bojangles in Charlotte, North Carolina, off Independence Boulevard. I stopped the Toyota pickup, crawled out to pick up the free change, and discovered a battered wallet filled with a driver’s license, credit cards, and over a hundred dollars. I simply called the owner and met her in the same parking lot. For my reward I received a big hug from a very dignified lady driving a sporty Jeep. And best of all I also received a promised prayer for my welfare. I hold great stock in sincere prayer. But really, she owed her thanks to my mother.
I can still see the money on the hotel steps in Spartanburg, South Carolina, as I was dragged along by the hand by my mother. I can still hear her voice declare "No! It's not yours!" as vividly now as I did over seventy years ago. My mother died aged ninety, but her teachings in my youth will never die.
