Growing up in almost any place in America I'm sure that like me you heard the phrase "Finders Keepers" from your peers; perhaps you even used it. The concept was and is that if something is found by someone it belongs to them. If any thought is put into justifying it, and it rarely is, is that if the person lost it then they didn't care enough to keep up with it or that the item would become trash otherwise.
I hadn't thought about that phrase and state of mind for some years until last year when I saw a friend of mine, a Christian, with a new ipod touch. He's not a wealthy guy and I knew he had one of the old school thick ipod bricks, but it still worked so I was curious. I asked him about it and he said he'd found it at an event he'd gone to that previous weekend. That concerned me and I asked if he'd tried to give it to a lost and found or at least do due diligence in attempting to find the owner. He shared that he found it in mud in a place that was raining. He said he thought that the owner would obviously not be able to find it and if they did water would have destroyed it if he hadn't of taken it.
This year I was in conversation with another friend. He'd had an iphone and had managed to break it by dropping it in water which also voided the warrantee which meant they didn't replace it. He'd replaced it with a normal phone, but really missed having mobile internet (though by no means "needed" it). He got a new one given to him by a friend. It was one the friend "just wasn't using." When he plugged it into the computer for the first time to put stuff on it it said "(Person's First Name's) iPhone." I was shocked. I asked him why it had a girl's name in it and uncomfortably he shared this: He knew his friend had found it in a shopping cart at a store, but obviously they lost it so somehow it was okay.
Donald Miller brings our attention to a story from the movie "The Family Man
" in his book To Own a Dragon
. In the story the character played by Nicholas Cage is in line at a convenience store. A woman ahead of him pays for a 99c item with a one dollar bill. The clerk removes nine ones from the register and gives them to her. As she reaches the door the clerk asks her if there's anything else and she says no. After she leaves the clerk looks at Cage and remarks that her character was only worth nine dollars; that's how much she was willing to sell it for.
" in his book To Own a Dragon. In the story the character played by Nicholas Cage is in line at a convenience store. A woman ahead of him pays for a 99c item with a one dollar bill. The clerk removes nine ones from the register and gives them to her. As she reaches the door the clerk asks her if there's anything else and she says no. After she leaves the clerk looks at Cage and remarks that her character was only worth nine dollars; that's how much she was willing to sell it for."Finders Keepers" is a statement. It says that what we want is more important than other people and it's wrong.
When we take or keep things that aren't ours we're succumbing to greed. Each time we do it, it hardens our hearts. The heart can become calloused and we can reinforce the belief that we are at the center of the world and other people don't really matter.
As Christians we illustrate the fall of humanity from God through the action of Eve taking and eating an apple from a tree, the only one that didn't belong to humanity. Today God provides everything we need, but still today many reach for the forbidden fruit; it taking an Apple product or anything that doesn't belong to us we place ourselves at the center of the universe and, consciously or not, testify that God's goodness isn't good enough for us.
(This is the second post in a recurring series examining how Christians do and/or should view different acts in modern culture.)
Post 1: File Sharing
Post 2: Finders Keepers
Post 3: Intellectual Property
Post 4: Sermons
Post a Comment 1 comments:
Very insightful, John. It truly is a shame that most people, Christians included, are so quick to put their own selfish wants before doing the right thing.