Hello again and welcome. It's
Tuesday, August 3, 2011 and I am beginning to get back into my routine. This past Sunday afternoon we returned home just as the NASCAR race up in Indianapolis had gotten underway. Now that is a way to spend an afternoon! Kicked back in the recliner watching those cars go around and around. During the commercials I would switch to the news channels to get the latest developments from the soap opera playing out in all three branches of our government. The old saying about how that making laws is like making sausage, and everyone likes the result but no one wants to watch it being made, was in full force as this all unfolded, in living color, so to speak. I have been involved in making sausage from the get go and my way of seeing it says that perhaps watching the making of sausage may be much less offensive than the mindless blather that has passed itself off as our lawmakers at work. One thing is certain. I saw folks over in Louisiana who did get the word on the President's threat about not being able to pay social security. He got that message over but how sad for him or anyone else to use such a scare tactic to try and get their way. But, it was forth and back, between the NASCAR race, me dozing off, and in watching the live and in person version of the Twilight Zone being shown in Washington, D.C. The last ten laps of the NASCAR race was great. It got me up and out of my chair cheering the #24 who finished second. As for winners and losers in that other series, only time will tell, and I fear our offspring and theirs will be trying to figure it out from now on. (Last night the House passed the so called compromise and today the Senate will vote, then the President will sign it into law, and then we lemmings can get back to what lemmings do. But wait a minute, isn't it lemmings that for no apparent reason stampede themselves over the cliff?)
The power of the media to sway opinion has taken center stage the last few weeks. We spend our lives teaching our children there are principles that should never be compromised under any threat or condition. Yet, we all have come to see those elected officials who refuse to compromise their principles as being the enemy of our democracy. How sad. Yeah, that steady drum roll of compromise, compromise, compromise has pretty much gotten to us all, but if in fact those who were elected last November to go to Washington to change the way things are done, and that's what they are trying to do, then perhaps the PR machine that has tried to silence them, has also hurt our chances as a nation to change the disastrous course we are on. I've heard many of them explain their opposition to these so called grand solutions. Their way of looking at it is that while they are glad the subject has been changed in terms of cost cutting, it is always the actual doing of it where Washington's games and gimmicks defeat most efforts to reign in the run away spending train. The mainstream press, the markets, the pundits, and most of us average citizens, are conditioned to swallow these grandiose agreements that speak much about dong something but in reality end up doing next to nothing. This is what those who have bowed their backs worry about. And, while I know they are taking a lot of heat, I do admire those standing up for principle. That's what made us who we are. Not agreeing to something just to get an agreement. But, if we get bored, we can always go down to the butcher shop and hope they just happen to be making sausage, that would be more entertaining!
I know that at times I sound cynical, especially as it relates to the political shenanigans that we have to put up with, but I am not as much a cynic as I am aggravated, and yes, disgusted with the reeking hypocrisy that pretty much defines all sides. Believers can never be completely disgruntled because at the start, during, and also at the end, we have the Lord God of heaven on our side. We are human and prone to join in the hand wringing marathon at times. However, when it comes down to it, we serve the Creator of all things, and He will accomplish His will according to His own good pleasure, and that gives us confidence. The Gaither's had it right, "Because He lives, we can face each day, tomorrow, and the future." Uncertain and perplexing at times, difficult and painful, it can be, but for those of us who share the same faith exhibited by Abraham, we can keep on keeping on, not because of our strength, not because we've got it figured out, but because we know Him and He has made us His own, therefore, we can find our place of service and do our thing as He has provided for us and as He has called us. It is when we, like the Apostle Peter, take our eyes off of our Savior, that we begin to sink in the waves of doubt and despair. (Matthew 14) Our country may be worse off as the economy continues to falter. Our ability to provide for ourselves and our families may be challenged. But, we can be sure, that our God does not depend upon the credit rating agencies, or the compromise of Congress, because He forever lives and He will make a way for His own! Be encouraged with these promises!
Amen. ....More later.
The power of the media to sway opinion has taken center stage the last few weeks. We spend our lives teaching our children there are principles that should never be compromised under any threat or condition. Yet, we all have come to see those elected officials who refuse to compromise their principles as being the enemy of our democracy. How sad. Yeah, that steady drum roll of compromise, compromise, compromise has pretty much gotten to us all, but if in fact those who were elected last November to go to Washington to change the way things are done, and that's what they are trying to do, then perhaps the PR machine that has tried to silence them, has also hurt our chances as a nation to change the disastrous course we are on. I've heard many of them explain their opposition to these so called grand solutions. Their way of looking at it is that while they are glad the subject has been changed in terms of cost cutting, it is always the actual doing of it where Washington's games and gimmicks defeat most efforts to reign in the run away spending train. The mainstream press, the markets, the pundits, and most of us average citizens, are conditioned to swallow these grandiose agreements that speak much about dong something but in reality end up doing next to nothing. This is what those who have bowed their backs worry about. And, while I know they are taking a lot of heat, I do admire those standing up for principle. That's what made us who we are. Not agreeing to something just to get an agreement. But, if we get bored, we can always go down to the butcher shop and hope they just happen to be making sausage, that would be more entertaining!
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