We need to be careful about what we assume is true. Without discernment, we can create a monster that will destroy the good and allow evil to rule our lives.

The attached video clip is from an old Twilight Zone episode titled “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.”  It was broadcast in 1960 in the typical black-and-white format and cinematic drama of the time, but its truth is timeless across all generations. On the fateful day, what was assumed to be a meteor passed over the town causing all the power to go out. A rumor began to circulate that aliens were invading the city. Night settled on the gathered residents of Maple Street who were huddled together in a fearful mob as a stranger approached. It is there where this clip begins.

The Maple Street broadcast vividly portrays what happens when a community becomes paranoid and allows suspicion to take over their thinking process without being first checked by reason. Suspicion is the playground of hell where our unchecked thoughts create wild imaginations and make judgments not based on fact. This allows untethered imaginations and judgments to destroy the bonds that hold families, communities, and a nation together. It does the same thing in a local church.

At this moment in time, we are living on Maple Street in America. Suspicion and distrust is rampant. How we respond in the coming days to what is happening in our world will determine what kind of faith we will give to the next generation. The monsters have arrived. They are the lies and half-truths we too readily believe without the clarifying presence of truth.