The Clothesline . . .

There was something to be said about the clothesline of yesteryear. It was an incentive to making sure one had bleached and cleaned wash loads as well as possible – because your laundry was on display and you were too! It whipped in the wind like flags in a stiff breeze. Sheets and large items were hung on the outside lines, the inner lines were reserved for personal items. Your neighbors and even passers-by could and would form a positive or negative opinion based on the things you hung out and the way you hung them on the line.

The internet provides a place for aired laundry of a different sort... it has become a modern day Mars Hill or Speakers Corner. As it was back then, so it is today. Many don’t care what they hang out for all to see. That's why you see and hear so much of the snivel and the whine and the bitter vetch aired there.

Many seek a voice and the internet provides a platform without parameters or governance – anything goes. Each man does what’s right in his own eyes. It’s a whole new world out there. Caution and discretion can be flung to the four winds. What once was only done in secret is now hung out like so much dirty laundry for public display. Vicious arguments, language that reveals a mindset steeped in the gutter, photos and video clips displaying a penchant for notoriety in milder forms, and real and implied depravity at worst, fictitious "biographical" material, and a willingness to hold any and everything sacred up for ridicule – this kind of laundry is readily available on the internet – MySpace, FaceBook, and YouTube are just some of the purveyors.

From the outset, it seemed wise to stay away from chat rooms and such. The amount of time they consume was unconscionable. Subsequent revelations have made them seem even less appealing and often downright sinister. They sing a siren's song... "Come – your notions are as good as anyone else’s – spread them abroad – I'll make it easy for you to see and be seen, hear and be heard. Tell your story like you'd like it to be. Don't fret about negative opinions and old-fogey logic. What do they know? Besides, what harm can it do? It’s your life!"

Funny that we, (the human race,) never seem to learn from the past. (Those who do are blessed indeed.) The traps are the same old tricks. But dressed in modern clothes, they intrigue us all over again with heady suggestive thoughts. Like our forebears, we succumb and make the same mistakes all over again, thus proving generation after generation, millennia after millennia, that the Word of God is right and true and applicable to all generations.

One of the good things about hanging out your laundry is the sun. Something about the sun and the wind work together in synergy. Soap, bleach, scrubbing and lots of water both for washing and rinsing do their part. But the sun and the wind together not only dry the laundry but they also purify and refresh the fabric. What’s more, the smell of line dried, sun-bleached clean linen is unforgettable!

Is the internet all bad? Of course not. There are many good uses for technology of all sorts. But to maintain a savor of the grace that brought us out of darkness into His marvelous light, one must embrace the need for His Light to permeate everything, action and deed. We are washed, we are cleansed and we are on display for all to see – trophies of His grace. His desire is for us to share the good news of His goodness and mercy wherever we go. He said we’re salt and light. As such we cannot be hid. But we do not draw men to ourselves, we point them to the One who can save them just as He saved us. With that mindset, the internet is just one more place that needs to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord!