Students in college often do things that don't make much sense. At least they did when I was in school. I am just amazed at times, at the lengths people will go to, to have a good time. When you are with a group, it is much easier to make bad decisions. The "mob" mentality takes over, and you stop thinking for yourself.

One of my close college friends worked one summer as a plumbers assistant. He returned to school in the fall with what each of us thought was an amazing addition for his room. It was a used commode.

I don't know where he got it. I don't want to know where he got it. It became the centerpiece of the his personal space. When visitors came, someone always had the privilege of being seated on the throne. I can't imagine why that was such a cool thing at the time. Now, it just seems really stupid.

That prime piece of porcelain was used for many things. One does not have to think very hard to imagine what we did with it. People who had heard about it on our campus of 30,000 would actually come by to see it. I can't believe one of us did not get deathly ill, in the wake of it's use.

When said commode had fulfilled its purpose(or perhaps we were bored), we decided to share it with our whole campus. However, we did not want to get into trouble in the process, so we awaited the dark cover of night.

We donned dark clothing, and blacked our faces. We even rented a climbers rope of heavy gauge, so that we could complete our activity.

I can't remember for sure, but I think there were 4 or 5 of us in on this foolishness.

We hauled this prize to a hill that overlooked our midwestern campus. Upon the hill, was an outdoor amphi-theater, where concerts were held rather frequently. Obviously, we chose a night that it was vacant.

In the deep of the night, adrenaline began to course through our veins. Excitement filled the air as we planned. We were going to be...foolish.

We stealthily moved toward the corner of the structure. The edge that was nearest the ground was selected. The difficulty was that we had waited so long to begin, that frost had developed all over the building. I scaled it, but for every step I made up, I slid back two. It took awhile to get up there. Attached to my belt was one end of the rope. Another friend then joined me on the roof.

We secured the line up top, while our accomplices tied off the former, pearly white seat below. We hoisted it up to the roof. We carefully moved it into position where it overlooked our campus. Anyone coming by would have their attention drawn to it...and everyone came by.

We had carefully selected a children's book which we inserted into the bowl. It was to be our calling card as we made plans to do this with other bathroom fixtures, in other areas of campus. The book was one of my childhood favorites, "The Tawny Scrawny Lion" (If I remember correctly, he too was seated on a throne on the front cover).

The following day we were absolutely thrilled to find a picture prominently placed in our school newspaper, which had a large circulation. Our prank had been immortalized in print. We were famous. We were famous in our own minds. No one knew we had done this.

We were not the first to make stupid decisions. While that certainly does not justify our seemingly harmless prank, things don't always work out quite so harmless.

There was another hill that overlooked a key city. There was another mob that began with the agreement of four or five people and then grew into a violent rage. Funny how quickly bad ideas will sweep through a people. Where does the voice of reason disappear to?

I was a part of that mob too. So were you. Fortunately, we can be restored. Complete forgiveness is possible.

Today, we are still elevating foolishness to lofty places. It is happening all around us.

Are we the voice of reason (or His Spirit through us), or is it once again, dissipating into the dark cover of the night?

dad