The Simple Life

We Are Blind We, as a nation, are blind to certain problems and opportunities. If we as a nation are blind, then I, too, am blind. Jesus told us that we need to be careful not to point out the speck in someone else's eyes while we are sporting a beam in our own. So, when I say that we as a nation are blind, I mean that we, me included, are at times blind to what is really going on around us. For example, we know that greed can and does cause all kinds of problems, but we do not want to deal with the issue of greed, because that would mean that we would need to define it, and that I, and or others, would be guilty of such an attitude. Since we do not want to live with guilt or shame that is caused by the action of greed, we will just assume that we are not greedy, and those we suspect of greed we will not engage in debate, because we do not want to offend anyone. We know that the consumption of alcohol causes great pains in our world. I tried to find accurate statistics, but found t...

This week there has been much talk about the new stimulus bill that our Congress passed. Some think that the contents of this bill will save our nation's economy. Others think we will sink into a "stagflation" unknown since the days of Jimmy Carter. Time will tell who is right. There was no possible way that anyone could have read, analyzed and thought about what was voted on in the time they were given. That does not surprise me. In fact, most of our nation thinks that opinions formed on limited information, during this, the information age, is fine. People who have never read the Bible or have read it once become experts on what it says. Those who have never sat in on a foreign relations briefing become experts at foreign relations. Those who have not been successful in their own marriage or in raising children become experts in family. Members in church are asked to vote on what they think the "will" of God is for their church while never really seeking or he...

Almost six decades ago, former president Herbert Hoover wrote a warning that I fear America has not heeded. After calling attention to several new programs and concepts, including "New Freedom" and "New Religion," Hoover stated, "We have overworked the word "new"…. The practical thing we can do, if we want to make the world over, is to try out the word "Old" for a while. There are some "old" things that made this country…Some old things are slipping badly in American life and if they slip too far, the lights will go out of America. ( What in the World is Going On? Dr. David Jeremiah) I listened to our president talk the other day during a town meeting he held in Florida. He talked about the extreme hardship many were experiencing and I wondered if he really understood hardship. He talked about how much people wanted to work, and I wondered if he ever met the crowd that tried to work the system so they did not need to work. I heard...