What can we do? We can seek God and we can do our best to help others who are struggling and if we are blessed to have a job, we can be thankful. Amen.

Hello folks and welcome to today's mutterings and musings on this Tuesday, March 29, 2011. It is really good to be up and going and as far as work goes, to have a place to go. This economic downturn has tentacles and they have now reached the red ink flowing from state budgets. Here in Texas this means major cutbacks in all kinds of spending. Law enforcement, fire protection, teaching, programs for the poorest among us, none of these and more are immune from the drastic actions that are being taken to try and get the spending reconciled with the revenue or income coming into the state's checkbook. Maybe some of these programs were in need of review. Perhaps we grew government too much. Whatever the case, the people holding jobs and doing their best each day to fulfill their duties had nothing to do with the budgetary problem. Many of these will soon be added to the unemployment rolls and they will join the crowded masses looking for work. When the recession began our state was able to buck the trend for the first year or more but the continued weakness eventually made its way into our domain, our locales, our neighborhoods. People are anxious, upset, and fretting over an unknown future. Who can blame them? I hate it when the best case scenarios by the so-called experts doesn't sound very 'best' at all because they are predicting more pain and maybe even a level of pain to be institutionalized into our system going forward. What can we do? We can seek God and we can do our best to help others who are struggling and if we are blessed to have a job, we can be thankful. Amen.

I know the President and his team have bet the farm on education as a way to get everything back on track. Here's my concern. They tell us that most of the job creation is in the service related industries at the low end, and that percentage wise, a very small number of professional jobs are being created. My view is that if we don't begin to do something about getting industry moving again so that higher paying jobs are required, our well educated workforce may end up, like so many today, unable to find a job that matches their credentials. Rather than emphasize one program over others, I believe you have to figure out how to do it all, get the engines going, prepare folks for what will be required, and to somehow do it without sinking the ship with the debt we are growing at the tune of over 50 billion dollars a day. I didn't say it was easy. I am not saying all the failures should be blamed on the current administration. But, in our form of government, the President and his team are the 'go to' folks to formulate plans and strategies to fix what is broken. I can't see where the more than one trillion spent thus far has had much lasting impact in terms of getting things up and going again. The numbers one week show a little progress but the next we see another round of losing ground. Of course the political pundits are out there spinning their self serving takes on it, from all sides, 24 by 7, faster than a carnival ride. What can we do? We can seek God and we can do our best to help others who are struggling and if we are blessed to have a job, we can be thankful. Amen.

Am I pessimistic? Not really. I am concerned for my family, for those coming up behind us, and for our nation. At the same time I believe in the Sovereign Majesty of our Great God and in His providential working and care on behalf of His own. Therefore, in the good times and the bad, we seek God's help to instill in us a life filled with faith and hope where we can get up every day and do our best to honor Him with the life He has given to us. At the same time, we do not, as so many do today, tune out the bad news, and spend our time trying to find something else to distract us from the reality of the situation before us. I recall that evaluation by our Lord and Savior as He reviewed the works and faithfulness of seven of His called out assemblies, (Churches). In particular, the congregation meeting at Laodicea was taken to task for their being totally disconnected from the truth of their own situation. They felt smug. They felt well off. They saw themselves as doing pretty good, clothed in the best, and really in need of nothing. The One who knows all things had this to say about this local fellowship: "...Because you say, I am rich, I have become wealthy, and have need of nothing---and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked---" The Lord goes on to tell them without coming to grips with the reality of their spiritual poverty and without a response of repentance and in getting right with God, they would end up losing it all. In fact, He said their hypocrisy made Him want to throw up. (The Revelation of Jesus Christ, Chapter 3, Verses 14-22) Is there a parrallel for America? Is there a need for us to examine ourselves in light of the God who has blessed us in the past? I leave you with this recurring theme from today's blog: What can we do? We can seek God and we can do our best to help others who are struggling and if we are blessed to have a job, we can be thankful. Amen.                        ......More later.