I only wish I could have seen it, but I heard about it and then I watched the video below and could not believe what I saw. The drama behind it made it that much better: Michael Phelps needs to win to have any chance at 8 golds; the world record holder from France talked smack about how they would smash the Americans and then had a body length lead when he swam the anchor leg; even the commentators were giving the Americans the silver during the last 50 meters of the race. And then…out of nowhere…Jason Lezak refused to quit.

Visa has come out with some great commercials that are running throughout the 2008 Summer Games, and this one is my favorite so far. Brings Hebrews 12:1 to mind…”and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

First of all, that video is pretty graphic. I don’t think I’d let your kids see it. But I included it more for the running commentary than for what’s actually on it. If you want to hear more reaction, you can check out the commentary from the Fox News channel, too. It’s got some stuff at the end about a French building climber that’s unrelated, but cool to watch.

Recently in Hartford, Connecticut, a 78 year-old man was the victim of a hit and run. Police there just released the videos to the public in order to try and catch the person who hit him, and now it’s all over the news. What gets me about this story, outside of the fact that a man got hit and no one helped, is how outraged the reaction is to it. Read some of the excerpts from the story on the Fox News website:

“At the end of the day we’ve got to look at ourselves and understand that our moral values have now changed.” Police Chief Daryl Roberts said. “We have no regard for each other.”

Witness Bryant Hayre said he didn’t feel comfortable helping Torres, who he said was bleeding and conscious.

“Whoever did this should be sent away for a long time,” Hayre told The Hartford Courant. “It was as if he was a dog left in the street to die.”

That second one really struck me. Did you catch it? The witness admitted that he didn’t feel comfortable helping and then talked about how the person driving left the man like a dog to die in the street. But, he didn’t want to help! So who left the 78 year-old man like a dog in the street? That’s right. The man who admitted he didn’t want to help.

Check out this quote from the Hartford, Conn. police chief:

“There was a time they would have helped that man across the street. Now they mug and assault him,” Roberts said. “That’s not a police problem. We no longer have a moral compass. Anything goes.”

So, here’s the part that leaves me shaking my head. People are outraged and shocked that the end result of a society that doesn’t want absolute values is a society that will watch instead of help. Seems like we could’ve seen that one coming, right? I’m not sure why we should be surprised at all about what we’re seeing on the video footage, because we’ve not been taught to value anyone or anything other than what affects ourselves.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m outraged, too. I’m outraged at how quickly we point out the coldness in others that is eerily similar to the temperature inside ourselves. This is surely why we need Jesus to be near our culture and our society. Not just so we help people who are hurting, but so that we begin to look more honestly at ourselves.