Justin D. Ridgeway

It was a beautiful morning on December 7, 1941. The sunrise was just beginning to sweep across the beautiful island of Oahu. It was Sunday, so while many started their routines, others enjoyed some extra time sleeping in. Without warning, “just before 8 a.m. … hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes.

I still remember once seeing a cartoon that summed up an interesting trend in Western society. It showed four children playing on a park bench with their tablets and devices, with a desolate playground in the background. The caption read, “children playing.” This satire illustrates a stark and troubling phenomenon. In our desire to virtually connect through technology, it seems as we are going offline to reality.

An October 16, 2015 The Week magazine article titled, “Smartphones: Changing us for the worse?” describes this phenomenon:

Diplomats were smiling in Vienna last week when the United States and six other nations struck a nuclear weapons control deal with the Iranian government. Yet, while many in the West consider the deal a historic breakthrough, other nations such as Israel and Saudi Arabia now fear that Iran may use this deal as cover to create a nuclear weapon.

When I was about four years old, my dad and I were standing under our garage, mesmerized by a powerful thunderstorm in the neighborhood. During the storm, lightning struck a tree in our yard, and danced across our chain-linked fence! This was so frightening to me that I immediately leaped into my dad’s arms for protection! You too may recall a memorable moment with lightning, a brilliant display of God’s power and glory—but did you know, lightning is a vital aspect to life?

The evening of April 14, 1865 was filled with joy and laughter for more than 1,000 Washingtonians who had come together at Ford’s Theater to watch a popular comedic play, Our American Cousin. But soon after the third act had begun, sometime after 10:00 p.m., the mood turned to grief and horror as a bloody stain was spattered onto the history of the United States.