Politics and Religion

Well I have always heard that these are two topics that you should not talk about in polite company. There is sure to be argument if you bring up either subject since people seem to be so divided on both issues. But should we as believers really hide our political feelings/leanings so we don't offend anyone who might believe differently? Or should we be open about what we believe in the hopes that they might come to believe the same way and make it easier for "our team" to win? Quite honestly I don't know the correct answer to that one, but I tend to make my feelings known on both Facebook and Twitter. So if you are curious about which way I lean, you can easily find out by reading through my posts. But you can't find out the little nuances of "how I lean" by doing so, therefore I'm still not sure that it makes sense to "go public" with what you believe.
For instance, if you kept up with most of my Facebook and Twitter posts lately you would find out that the debt limit issue is one I have strong opinions about. By reading those posts you might come to the conclusion that I am a very right leaning Republican. And I wouldn't challenge that label. In many ways I suppose I am very right leaning. I'm not so sure about the Republican part though. Maybe Libertarian would fit better, or Reagan Conservative, or Fiscal Conservative. Oh, I don't know, all of these labels make me nuts. What I do know is that I get pretty upset when I hear Democrats using the term "fairness" during these debates. What is "fair" about taking money from one person who worked hard to earn that money to care for their family, and giving it to someone else, who may or may not have done anything to put themselves in the situation that they are in. Another term that I link closely to that "fairness" is the term "more fortunate", as in saying that those of us who are "more fortunate" than others should give our fair share to those who are "less fortunate". I beg to differ with these people, but there is nothing "more fortunate" about where I am in life. I am where I am in life because of the decisions that I made. There have been many times in my life when things were a lot tougher financially than they are now, and that was also because of the decisions I made in life. Some of those decisions were choosing to drink, to use drugs, to smoke cigarettes, and not to go to school to further my education. All of those decisions affected my bottom line negatively. Booze and drugs aren't cheap. Neither are cigarettes. Not to mention the negative impact that boozing and drugging tend to have on your ability to obtain and keep good employment. Was it someone else's fault that I made those decisions? Absolutely not. Neither should it have been there responsibility to bail me out of the mess that I got myself into by making those decisions. The refusal to continue my education was just laziness. It was not the result of an inability to learn, I made straight A's in school and could absorb new material easily. And I "tested" well. No, my decision not to continue my education beyond high school was my own, made out of boredom with school at the time. I joined the military instead and then when I got out of the Army I took the easy route out and worked in lower paying jobs because they were easily obtainable and they didn't drug test as much. I could have used the GI bill to continue my education but instead I squandered the years those benefits were available to me. That was no one else's fault but mine. I married and had a child, and there were times when we struggled for a place to live and food on the table. But it was still the result of the poor decisions we were making, not because we were "less fortunate" than anyone else. When I see people who remind me of the past me it makes me a little angry. They are out looking for someone else to foot the bill for them while they languish in the world they created by their own faulty decision making processes. And while those who are truly "less fortunate" than some of us have to suffer because of program shortages, these fake "less fortunate" people continue to show up at the doctors office and the hospital looking for medical treatment. And they show up in nicer cars than the medical assistant who rooms them drives. They talk on the latest high tech cell phones that the clerical workers who maintain their records and check them out can't afford. They spend their government paychecks on tattoo's and hair styles while you and I feed their children, who all have some type of government insurance to pay for their healthcare, while the nurse who draws the blood for their health screenings struggles to make it and has to shop at the Goodwill Store to cloth her kids.
The system is broken, and perhaps beyond repair. Maybe it is time to disband it all and start all over again. For those who are truly "less fortunate" there are government programs, churches, and other non-profit agencies around to assist them. I personally support the works of our church, another non-profit homeless shelter, and two other agencies who help those in need. So I do my "fair share". I prefer that I do so willingly and not by government strong arming me into it.

Looking for grapes

Well, I haven't been a very good blogger. It has been quite some time since I updated this particular blog. But my wife gave me a great idea the other day, and I actually incorporated it into one of my sermons this month. We were talking about remaining positive in disappointing times and one of my keys for doing that was to only do what God told you to do, and nothing more. Numbers 13 tells the story of the 12 spies that were sent into the Promised Land to spy it out. Moses told them to check out a number of things. He told them to see what kind of people lived there, whether they were strong or weak, how many of them there were, what is the land like, good or bad. How do they live, in tents or in strong holds, again about the land, is it fat or lean. And then he told them to bring him back some grapes because it was at the time of the first harvesting of grapes when they were going in. They did all of the above, but they also noticed that there giants in the land. The bible says they found a cluster of grapes that had to be placed between a pole and carried by two men. Now that is a big cluster of grapes. But do you think they mentioned that when they got back? NO. The only thing they could talk about was the giants who were there. The bible also tells us that they already knew that the giants would be there, and had been told that God would take care of them. Their panicked talking about giants instead of showing off the grapes they brought back caused their brethren to lose hope, and cost the older generation their opportunity to go into the Promised Land. If God sends you for grapes, don't come back talking about the giants.