Government Shut Down

Follow the yellow brick road, oh my.  Where are we going tin man?

"Well, I think we are headed in the right direction.  The Federal Government has shut down all non-essential jobs."

  So, if they are non-essential, that means we can do without them.  Right?  If we treasure the constitution, couldn't we just have real people meeting on a regular/ yearly basis to address "essential" needs of the government and leave the rest to local governments?  Do we want big brother feeding us, giving us medicine, deciding how much tax we owe "them"?  Do they really qualify for more than the 10% God requires?

We love our museums and parks.  But, originally, they were run by "volunteers".  Our roads do interconnect us and are worthy of our tax dollars.  The truth of the matter is that we have not really cut down to "essential" needs yet.

On the other hand, I personally have benefitted by Social Security caring for my parents, Medicare taking care of my fatherless nephews and neice, my hippie brother and one son being paid by the military.  It has made life easier, for me.  We are no longer an agregarian society, so how do we feed and clothe extended family?  If my brother has the necessities of life unmet, would it not be my duty to try to meet that need?  Can I really pass it off to the government?

And what about the churches?  What responsibility does the church have to meet the needs of those within its congregations?  So the churched are fed and cared for and the non-working, druggies are not.  Fair?  Oh, my goodness, how immature are we when fairness comes up constantly--who ever said life is fairl.  However, these un-churched druggie types have children and as a society, we owe those children respect.  And what if the druggies is your brother, neice or parent?  Is this not an illness of our society that needs to be addressed?  And what makes us think the governent is equipped to address it just because we throw them money?  They inflate the salaries of those who care for the weak among us and the weak are not helped.

Furthermore, we pay to abort those babies that are not wanted--hoping to save ourselves a few bucks.  Is that murder or is that compassion?  Many would debate this issue, as well.We have become consumed with "me" and anything other than "me" is for someone else to take care of, so we pay the government and the job does not get done. So why do we keep on paying them?  They cry for more more more money to do the job.  The job is ours.  The missing element is God, not money.

Americans are over-compassionate. We pay for the disabled, the non-working, the mentally ill, the illegal alien, the prisoners, the largest group of blood suckers:  Full time politicians--with their jacked up expense accounts and travel reimbursements, seminars, retreats and the alcohol they seem to need.

Essential services.  What are the essential services?  Our military, our veterans, our aged, our children, our roads...Food inspectors?

More irony.  We continue to pay these politicians when the government is shut down, we continue to pay them for the rest of their lives...Service, duty, sacrifice has gone from all our vocabularies.  And "In God We Trust" has been replaced by in money we trust and it has short changed us.

Can we call for a national day of repentance?  Or, not yet?  Are we desperate enough, yet, to turn to the only one that can help us?  Or will we continue to rely on our own selfish ambitions, man-made plans and ideologies, theories and move to despotism?

Cry out people.  Repent.  It is an old message but the only hope of our salvation, individually or as  nation.

Amen.