“Nero fiddled while Rome was burning”
There is an old phrase that tells us that “Nero fiddled while Rome was burning”. It is meant to give us a picture of doing unless things while major calamities surround us.
In Nero’s case, the fiddle had not been invented until about the 16th century, so who knows how that story got started.. Maybe he used a lyre instead of a fiddle. Maybe he was one? But Rome did burn in 64 A.D., and Nero, though he may not have started it, or fiddled thru it, blamed the Christians for it.
Same scene in playing out in America today. With Syrians being gassed and murdered by the tens of thousands, cops being killed at the rate of 1 per day in America, and drugs and immortality destroying our children, the media can find no news to report but an unsubstantiated Russian conspiracy theory based upon a sore loser syndrome from the past elections. Congress is once again fiddling while we perish, and the news media is merely fanning the flames.
The saddest similarity between the Roman regime and the present day dilemma is that the answerer to all the problems, both past and present, has been pushed to the side and even blamed, in part, for the situation.
Jesus Christ is the answer to moral decline, hatred, anger, poor relationships, greed and pride. Yet He is ignored, even asked to sit on the outside of the circle and be still. Deja vu all over again.
In John 16:33, Jesus tells us that .. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” We become what we focus on. Those who focus on the news for their daily outlook are just fiddling their way thru life. But those who focus on Jesus will see life in its true setting, and find blessings and relief among the embers of the turmoil around us. Turn off the T.V., put down the newspaper, and open your Bible. Things look a lot better when the truth is applied to them.
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