I love sports. For a long time, I loved sports talk shows on the radio. However, I began noticing that one of my favorite local sports talk shows was changing. While I love the personality and warmth of the key on air personality, I began to notice that more and more of the commercials on the show were for different flavors of the ultimate oxymoron, “gentleman’s clubs.” The language and the topics grew coarser. The antics a little wilder. Then one day the topic came up about how long a well-known Hollywood couple had dated without being sexually intimate. The whole crew reacted with disdain and unbelief.

    “Impossible! Nobody could be expected to wait that long!”

    Before long, the whole morning riff that day focused on “How long did you wait?”

    When one of the long time callers, and a favorite of the host called in and said he waited 3 years, they wouldn’t believe him at first. Then, they began a gentle, but clear ridicule of the whole idea that anybody could or should be expected to wait.

    I was angry. I was frustrated. The host is a guy who genuinely wants to be a nice guy. He makes noise about patriotism, being a believer, the importance of family and respecting each other. Then I began to examine all the tripe that I had let slide in under my radar because I liked the sports talk — the talk about going to topless bars, the crude and profane speech, and the criticism and sarcasm used for anyone who took a stand for any kind of values.

    Then it hit me: what I was hearing on the show this day wasn’t a change! I had finally awakened from my lethargic and willful moral coma. The person responsible for this intrusion into my world wasn’t the on-air personality, nor the callers, nor the management of the radio station. The buck has to stop here, with me.

“Guard your heart more than anything else...”

    I let the garbage in because it was encased in a lot of good talk and analysis that was fun and insightful about things I enjoy. In the process, however, a whole point of view antagonistic to faith and morality was given an open door to pound away at my heart. The language echoed in my ears and was close to my lips because of the exposure. The coarse humor began to eat away at my own speech. The buck stops here!

    As I faced this reality, the Spirit brought to remembrance one of his inspired truths from the Old Testament: “Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23) Then the Lord helped bring to mind another equally significant passage from the New Testament: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8)

    So, after some soul-searching and prayer, I decided to listen to what God’s Word was saying: “The buck stops here!” And it has. Not just with the radio, but with all other areas of my life, too.

    What about you? What do you let in under your spiritual radar because it is presented in a way you like? Even more importantly, what positive things are you putting into your heart and mind? Come on and join me. Let’s let the buck stop here!

Title: "The Buck Stops Here!"
Author: Phil Ware
Publication Date: July 9, 2001

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