I was talking with a friend tonight, and the subject of ethics training in the workplace was discussed.  My mind immediately went to the sad absurdity that we as a culture have fallen so far that we have to have meetings from time to time to make sure that we understand and can agree that ethical behavior is expected in the workplace.  I am a professional teacher.  It terrifies me that on a faculty of adult professionals who are entrusted with children all day every day have behaved in such a way that a meeting is warranted to inform us that honesty is expected and that theft, sexual misconduct and inappropriate use of the internet are not acceptable behaviors.  Now, I know that in reality schools have to conduct these trainings to satisfy legal requirements protecting them from some liabilities in the event of employee misconduct.  However, the fact remains that those events have and do continue to happen. In a culture like this, when trouble comes people look around for a man who they know will stand.  They can know that such a man will stand because he has stood before and has not been moved through all kinds of different times.  When everybody is relaxing at the company party, when the consultant is in the building and the audit is happening, when some tragedy has befallen the community, when you run into him outside of work, he's always the same.  Now, he may be overlooked, dismissed and even ridiculed most of the time.  But, when things happen, when the absurd comes true and people do things that make us question how a human is capable of such acts, they'll come looking for the man who will stand.

They should be able to look to the man of God.  They should be able to find the man with the Bible on his desk.  There should be  a man who does not call attention to himself, but they have absolutely noticed him because he has "been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13).  In a time when even "Christian" men may be more concerned with this world than with the Lord and His Word, we need to make sure that the people in our lives have that man in their worlds.  They ought to be able to come and ask him questions, ask him to pray, and look for him to do what's right.  That's what a fence post is, gentlemen.