A couple of weeks ago a BLM wildlife biologist explained to me that the bats of eastern Oregon were easier to catch than ones on the west side of the Cascades. He said this was because the bats in the east were “net-stupid”. Here along the coast, he said, it was harder to catch bats in the nets he set up. In the east the bats fly right into them.
He shared a lot of other fascinating stuff about different kinds of echolocation, fast-flying and slow-flying species of myotis, but my mind was chasing a squirrel. I was thinking about how I didn’t want my sons to be net-stupid, about nets I’d flown into, and about the father in Proverbs telling his son how not be net-stupid.
In the first chapters of Proverbs, Solomon warns his son of several kinds of nets. He spends a lot of time warning against the traps laid out by the adulteress. Today this net probably includes all the porn on one of the largest nets—the inter-net. Proverbs also says the fear of man is a snare. It’s true. Too many Christians have gotten tangled in the nets of people’s opinions. I’ve heard this is especially true for teens. But the net that seems to catch the big fish is pride. I think casinos refer to big spenders as “whales” and work hard to net them by appealing to their egos.
Probably every pastor has counseled, again and again, some net-stupid members. Some folks have no echolocation. I wish it were as easy as getting them to move to the west coast, but the people here are pretty tangled in sin too. If too many young people are net-stupid, it is because our culture doesn’t encourage them to carefully listen to the instruction of godly parents. But it may also be because they have seen too many of those warning them against one net flying headlong into another. Consistency matters.
Sometimes it seems I haven’t done a great job teaching my boys to avoid the nets, but I did give each one a knife.
