Your phone rings. You pick it up and say, “Hello?” A voice on the line says, “Hello... is your refrigerator running?” You say, “Y-yes.” The voice on the line, snickering, bursts out with, “Well, you better go catch it!” That “age-old” prank call is somewhat innocuous compared to what has played out recently in the news. What does the Bible say about this kind of humor?

2012 was a year of dramatic predictions that failed!  On December 21, expectations based on the Mayan calendar that the world would end were dashed when that prediction failed. One source stated,  “Apparently, doomsday theorists have been prepping for a fiery comet hitting the earth, ice storms destroying our power grids and other heinous catastrophes in vain” (emphasis ours) (ABC Action News, December 21, 2012).

There was a time when my brother and I searched for hidden treasure on the farm, and we certainly left holes everywhere we went. As kids, we spent hours in the hot sun digging. It was not hard work because we shared a common—if childish—dream, and it was real to us at the time. Too many of us have lost the excitement of having a dream.

Raging wildfires burning brush and farmland have broken out all across Australia and Tasmania, fed by widespread drought, high winds and months of record-breaking temperatures.

Another calendar year has come to a close. Many world events have come across our headlines; countries have elected new leaders, the sports world has crowned new champions, families celebrated promotions and graduations.