{"id":584,"date":"2019-03-16T17:30:17","date_gmt":"2019-03-16T23:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=584"},"modified":"2019-03-16T11:53:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T17:53:27","slug":"watch-and-pray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=584","title":{"rendered":"Watch and pray!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[To follow The Ewellogy<\/em><\/strong>, please click on Leave a Comment<\/em><\/strong> above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email<\/em><\/strong>. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.] <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some reason I have been really exercised about the college admission scandal story that broke this week. Maybe it’s because one of the alleged participants, Lori Loughlin, plays the wholesome Abigail Stanton on When Calls the Heart, a Hallmark series we watch with our granddaughter every week. (We’re only in season 4; season 5 has aired, and season 6 was underway.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another reason I’m drawn to the story is that I can’t imagine anything less worth cheating for than trying to get into an elite college. As a proud graduate of a lowly state school (Clemson!), I think I’ve done OK in life. Malcolm Gladwell wrote in David and Goliath<\/strong> (I think) that some people get into, say, Harvard, and do poorly when they would have done just fine at a “regular” institution. Jason Gay makes this point nicely in the Wall Street Journal (Thursday, March 14): “None of this nonsense is worth it. College is college–some schools have more to offer than others, but in your life, you’re going to meet plenty of useless dingbats who went to the most distinguished colleges in the country. You’ll also encounter wizards who barely went to school at all.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hesitated to write about it, not wanting to “pile on” people who got caught doing something most of us couldn’t have even been tempted toward because we don’t have the means. But that’s the issue for all of us, isn’t it? Giving into temptation. Maybe this one doesn’t apply, but others do. Apparently, the case broke when someone who was guilty of securities fraud had also participated in this illegal scheme. Which came first? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jason Gay also wrote, “Not everyone cheats. Not everyone cuts corners. There isn’t a diploma in the world that’s more valuable than your integrity–and you can’t buy your integrity back.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And some college admissions bribery is legal: giving millions to your Alma Mater so your kid can be accepted. Who is more guilty? The wealthy parent who gives the bribe<\/del> donation, or the school who alters its standards to let their kid in? Are there institutions who can stand up and say, “Slots in our school can’t be bought!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For us as believers, scripture is clear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26.41, NKJV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are all warning markers\u2014DANGER!\u2014in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel\u2014they at the beginning, we at the end\u2014and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on <\/em>your face<\/em><\/g> as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence. (1 Corinthians 10.11, 12, MSG)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


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For some reason I have been really exercised about the college admission scandal story that broke this week. Maybe it’s because one of the alleged participants, Lori Loughlin, plays the wholesome Abigail Stanton on When Calls the Heart, a Hallmark series we watch with our granddaughter every week. (We’re only in season 4; season 5 … Continue reading Watch and pray!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-9q","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=584"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":586,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions\/586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}