Whatever it takes: Hoaxed

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Hoaxed

A physics professor at Adelaide University in Australia, Sir Kerr Grant used to illustrate the time of descent of a free-falling body by allowing a heavy ball suspended from the lecture-theater roof trusses to fall some 30 feet and be caught in a sand bucket. Each year the bucket was lined up meticulously to catch the ball -- and each year students secretly moved the bucket to one side, so that the ball crashed thunderously to the floor.

Tiring of this rather stale joke, the professor traced a chalk line around the bucket. The students moved the bucket as usual, traced a chalk mark around the new position, rubbed it out and replaced the bucket in its original spot. "Aha!" the professor explained, seeing the faint outline of the erased chalk mark. He moved the bucket over it and released the ball -- which thundered to the floor as usual.

D.G. Dewar, Reader's Digest.

It's so easy to be fooled. In 2007 I received these e-mail pictures that reportedly showed the inside of the home of Tiger Woods. They were beautiful photographs, but according to www.snopes.com, the home is not owned by Tiger Woods. It is actually owed by a Maui beachfront rental company called The Golden Conch. Rental: $4000-and-up per night. Yikes!

According to golfonline.com, Tiger Woods was soon to own another home but not the one in Maui. He owns a home in Southern California and a lot at Three Creeks Ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. His 10-acre estate on Florida’s Jupiter Island comes complete with four homes, two docks for his $22 million yacht, a golf hole, and courts for volleyball and tennis. He was living (2007) in a home at Isleworth in Orlando that he reportedly purchased for $54 million. With PGA and international events taking up most Thursdays through Sundays, I can’t imagine that he spends very much time enjoying any of them. The aerial views of his homes (not pictured) are breathtaking.

Two thoughts:

1. Many have been hoaxed by the pictures of Tiger’s home. The pictures and the value associated with them do not belong to him. A Christian can also be hoaxed. He buys into this world’s picture of success. He spends his whole life working hard to get ahead and then spends his remaining years holding tightly to what he has earned. But that picture of success and the values associated with them never really belonged to him either. He won’t take them with him when he is gone. They were always on loan from God. Christians should not invest in this life alone because the return is in the life to come.

2. God has given man the ability to build marvelous works. We see colors, styles, architecture, and settings that give pleasure to the eyes. It’s okay that you and I may never own such places. John 14:2 declares that Jesus is preparing a place for us. It will be a place made by His handiwork. In this life we see beauty that man makes. In the next life we will witness the wonders that Christ creates. There will be no comparison.