Of Presidents, Bears, and Failing To Do The Wrong Thing

Today is Teddy Bear Day. Most people have heard the story of how the Teddy Bear came to be. It started in 1902, when, after a frustrating hunting experience, President Teddy Roosevelt was presented with a baby bear. Mr. Roosevelt, the presenter suggested, might like to shoot this bear so at least they wouldn't go home empty-handed. The president of course refused, and the incident was portrayed in a newspaper cartoon. A toy maker picked up on the idea, and the rest is history.

Originally, I was going to use today to illustrate something about mercy. Instead, I'd like to point out how badly we need it. See, Roosevelt isn't remembered in this incident for showing mercy to this baby bear. Not really. Rather, he's the hero of this tale simply for refusing to do something horrible.

Think about it. This small bear cub hadn't done anything to the hunting party. It hadn't even grown into a mature adult. Whether or not you agree with hunting as a sport, I think anyone with a heart pretty much understands why shooting the cub would've been a rotten thing to do. This isn't mercy; it's humanity. That the incident was commemorated tells us something about ourselves, I think.

We, the human race, tends to see simple kindness as something extraordinary. We have this idea that we deserve to be rewarded somehow for not taking part in doing the wrong thing, or because we managed, somehow, to do what's right.

I'll never forget the day when, as a substitute teacher, I was asked by my students about drug use. Actually, I believe the direct quote was, "I bet you did a lot of drugs in college, huh?" He really wanted to know. So I told him: no. Not even once. I've never been drunk, and I've never even experimented with drugs. The students were incredulous. How did I manage that? How did I get through college and not do drugs? It's just sort of taken for granted that, at a certain age, you're expected to do the wrong thing, and anyone who fails to do the wrong thing is either a hero or pariah. I'm honestly not sure, to this day, how they viewed me.

But what all this tells me is simply this: we need a savior. All of us. It's so easy to do the wrong thing. Doing the right thing, even if, in hindsight it was as simple as just making a decision, can seem like an insurmountable challenge at the time. The truth about human nature is that defaulting to the wrong choice is ingrained in all of us. And that's why I need God. That's why Jesus came. Because even though we all do it right now and then, even though anyone can (theoretically) avoid the bad and embrace the good, much of the time, we simply don't.

My prayer this morning is that God help each of us to stop looking for the pat on the back every time we do the right thing. That He help us instead see our need for Him. That He forgive us our depravity which causes even simple acts of kindness to seem extraordinary, and that we look to Him as the perfect example of how to live a truly good life.