Mental Lapse

I was just thinking about - - - -

It’s amazing how we can conveniently forget some of the basic truths of life. We know what is foundational to our value system but we allow ourselves areas of flexibility – trying to avoid being dogmatic in a pragmatic world. And yet, we know that the entire Cosmos is based upon absolutes. In the area of science, the chemical formulations have to be based on absolutes or a disaster will ensue. In the area of Mathematics, there are absolutes that allow for the universal reality that 2 plus 2 will always be four.

The axiom that has served our nation well for many decades – “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it” – needs to be revisited. We can get caught up in the political rhetoric of some charismatic speaker or speakers and become part of a herd that could just as easily be led over a cliff instead of into green pastures. The issue we face as a nation is that God has become repugnant and we look at and to certain people to meet our deep felt needs. We are so close to the edge of substituting Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…” to – if we elect a political party, they will care for all our needs – Universal Health Care; Gasoline Subsidies; Disengagement from Battle Fields; Taxation of the wealthy and redistribution of revenues to the Poor; etc. It sounds like Utopia! It leads us to think we can exist in a Brigadoon continuum – (Brigadoon is a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every hundred years, though to the villagers, the passing of each century seems no longer than one night. The enchantment is viewed by them as a blessing rather than a curse, for it saved the village from destruction. According to their covenant with God, no one from Brigadoon may ever leave, or the enchantment will be broken and the site and all its inhabitants will disappear into the mist forever).

Biblical principles have been relegated to the sideline in our culture. However, it might not hurt to have some of our “political leaders” – those with fanciful notions about how to better society – to consider: (1) Provision was always to be made for the poor. Leviticus 23:22, “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.” (2) Reality of the Poor - Matthew 26:11, The poor you will always have with you…(3) A man is to be ambitious in providing for himself and his family - II Thessalonians 3:10, “…we gave this order: If anyone doesn't want to work, he shouldn't eat.” And (4) I Timothy 5:8, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

Nowhere does one find that the secular government is intended to be the controller and provider for the citizenry. Government is to provide order for a society. When it intrudes into areas where the Biblical ethic is to be functional, it has stepped over the line and attempts to become what it was never intended to be – the god of the culture. Ecclesiastes 12:1 through 7 is a good reminder of what once was, as well as what a nation has allowed itself to become – (NLT) “Don't let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and no longer enjoy living. It will be too late then to remember him, when the light of the sun and moon and stars is dim to your old eyes, and there is no silver lining left among the clouds. Your limbs will tremble with age, and your strong legs will grow weak. Your teeth will be too few to do their work, and you will be blind, too. And when your teeth are gone, keep your lips tightly closed when you eat! Even the chirping of birds will wake you up. But you yourself will be deaf and tuneless, with a quavering voice. You will be afraid of heights and of falling, white-haired and withered, dragging along without any sexual desire. You will be standing at death's door. And as you near your everlasting home, the mourners will walk along the streets. Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Don't wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well. For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.”

Think about this with me - - -