Friday, November 09, 2007

Challenging This Brave New World


Huddled in dimly lit room in Germany, a man struggled to arrange wooden tiles on his desk. He stroked his beard thoughtfully as he squinted in the candlelight. Finally, he placed the tiles on a bulky, homemade contraption. This was it—the invention that would make or break the destiny of Christendom, making books available to all. Words inked by Gutenberg’s printing press would revolutionize Europe, and to this day, every library and bookshelf owes its existence to that man. In 1997, Time-Life magazine declared Gutenberg’s invention to be the most important of the past one thousand years. No invention since Gutenberg’s printing press has been more influential; until, perhaps now.
No, we are not on a continent struggling to emerge from the Dark Ages. Most can read and we now take books for granted. However, as never before in history, virtually limitless information is brought into our homes via a single tool: the internet.

In years past, it was only an elite few—politicians, monarchs, and lately, the press—who harnessed the ability to broadcast information on a large scale. Now that responsibility has been placed in the hands of any man, woman, or child able to click a button. Everyone has access to this updated version of Gutenberg’s printing press. It's so easy and potent. Yet the greatness of any invention is not the object itself, but how it changes the world through its existence. A printing press doesn't matter unless people's minds are changed for the better from its books.

At Beauty from the Heart, we've tried to use our influence, however limited, responsibly. We're trying to do our part to spread the message of Biblical womanhood to Christian teens, trying to challenge our peers to consider the beauty of their calling as women of God; but we can only do so much on a website.

Unless Biblical womanhood becomes more than a concept to us, but a way of living that is applied every day, our influence is nothing. If we only take what we've learned and tuck into in our brains to catch dust, have we truly learned anything? Or do we live what we believe? Do we lovingly share this truth with the feminism-indoctrinated girl we know who suits up for football practice, ready to tackle male players? Do we share what we know of purity with the nine year old neighbor who brags about her latest "boyfriend? Do we assume our nation is doomed to extreme immorality, and stop praying for revival? Action is how change happens. I have a dream, that by God's grace in using willing hands, something can be changed.

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