Cheaters Never Win?

A recent survey of 30,000 college students reveals that 60 percent of them admit to cheating in their courses. Only a small percentage of them feel remorse about it.

The most interesting quote from the article: "Oddly enough, we found that cheaters usually win and winners usually cheat." The proof cited is that cheaters have higher GPA's than non-cheaters.

Duh. If I copy test answers from the textbook or hide them in my cell phone, my test scores will be higher on average than those of students who studied honestly and took the test based upon their own knowledge.

Unfortunately, this perspective is quite myopic. Nobody doubts that cheaters win in the short run; the question is whether they prevail in the long run. Or to ask the question another way: In general, do those who lack integrity have an easier time in life than those who maintain it?

In many (not all) instances, cheaters lose quite decidedly. Their spouses discover the affair. Their bosses discover their poor work ethic is being covered by excuses and lies. Their friends figure out they cannot be trusted. The law finally catches up with them. Those instances are sufficient examples to keep many people committed to the principles of honesty.

However, there are instances in which cheaters do seem to win in the long run. They grow rich and gain fame or worldwide respect in spite of, or perhaps even because of their lack of integrity.

Interestingly, the Scripture discusses this very phenomenon quite openly. In Psalm 73, for example, Asaph laments how the wicked seem to grow rich and fat as a result of their sin. He questions God's justice and righteousness.

But the end of the Psalm is quite different from the beginning: "When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight until I came to the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; you cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment! They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when aroused, You will despise their form."

In other words, judgment is coming. It may not be today, tomorrow, or even when they are old men, but it is on its way.

If we believe that God's judgment is real, then those of us who minister to students do well to remind them of the eternal perspective. Cheaters may win in the short run, but it never pays off in eternity.

The Clucking Gosling

This past Sunday I had the privilege of being a guest speaker at a church in a nearby city. I am accustomed to speaking to college students, so this was a bit of a stretching experience for me, although a good one.

They were a very welcoming congregation, and also very responsive to my message from Psalm 63.

There was, however, one interesting tale to be told regarding congregational response.

The church holds three services, the first one of which is at 8:00 A.M. As you can imagine, attendance is rather sparse at the first service, and the predominant hair color is not black, brown, red, or yellow.

I illustrated Psalm 63:7 ("in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy") with a picture of a Canadian goose sheltering her young under her wing. I mentioned that I had never seen this phenomenon personally, since I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas and not on a farm. In my nervousness and haste, I accidentally referred to the baby geese as "chicks." BIG mistake.

After the service, a kind and chronologically gifted woman approached me with a few short critiques of my message. (For those of you who are not speakers, beware: Immediately after a sermon is not the best time to give criticism to your pastor.) Among other things, she mentioned that baby geese are actually called "goslings." I thanked her for her input and fixed my blunder in the later services.

I forgot about it until this morning, when I received an email from another church member. He expressed his thanks for my message. Then, there was this postscript: "
"p.s., baby geese are called goslings not chicks and geese don't cluck, they honk. :-) !!! "

Thanks. Really. I get it. Gosling. Gosling. Gosling.

Oh, and one more thing: I did some research of my own.

Canadian geese honk AND cluck. In fact, they double cluck (don't ask me what that means -- if you are an ornithologist, feel free to add your two cents here).

So if they double cluck, does that make me twice as correct? And doesn't that make up for the whole gosling thing, huh? Huh? C'mon!

Fine. Gosling. Gosling. Gosling.

Honor Points

Well, Shannon and I just returned from six days in Paris (France, not Texas). We were not on vacation, but were debriefing one of our student summer missions projects. They were in North Africa for six weeks and then spent several days in Paris with us at the end of the trip. What a great time and a great group of students!

Funny story:
Several of our male students and interns have developed a game they call "Honor Points." Each player begins with 100 honor points. You can give some of your points to another player if he does something worthy. For example, at one point during the trip one of the team members was offered 10 honor points to attempt to catch a pigeon. It is really just a funny way to pass the time.

At any rate, we were sightseeing one day and happened to be standing on a bridge overlooking the Seine River. A couple of the guys got together, pooled all of their points, and offered Marty Scott (one of our interns) nearly 200 honor points to jump in the river. This was the most points anybody had ever offered in the history of the game, as far as we know.

The best part is that Marty appeared to seriously consider the offer, despite the fact that the river was probably near the freezing point, the fall was probably about sixty feet, and there was no easy exit point at the side of the river. Put another way: if the fall didn't kill him, the water would have. I of course told Marty that there was no way he was allowed to jump in that river (but then later gave him a hard time for chickening out, of course).

At any rate, that's the sort of energy and willingness to try new things that students and young adults often have. Granted, it can be tinged with a lack of commonsense at times, but still...If they can stay alive long enough, they might just change the world.