A good Facebook Friend posted a status that included the observation “….most every prime time speaker at the DNC rode home in limos and jets with an entourage of armed security guards to a house that none of us can afford and with an investment portfolio that they accumulated through a life of “public service” that none of us will ever match.” I believe that is probably true of the RNC as well. The wealth of those in office is astounding. What is even more astounding is that voters ignore this factor: While the progressive candidates rail against the rich banks, wall street and the wealthy and blame our nation’s problems and struggles on them, the electorate seems to miss the fact that these candidates are standing among the ones they accuse.
The tough nut here is that those who actually elect these people keep believing the promises they are given – promises which are not fulfilled in spite of effort which causes loss to someone else. The needy believe they will be taken care of by the government that is taking from those that have. The government promises that by taking from the haves and giving to the have-nots, the have-nots will gain a better station in life. They will be assisted and able to crawl out of their hole. The evidence is to the contrary. In all the years of the government’s fight against poverty in this way, they have achieved no more progress than they have in the government’s fights against illegal drugs. Yet the electorate continues to elect those who promise these results.
But, as can be seen, these who make these promises are among the ones that have yet they are unwilling to give or give up what they have for the sake of the needy. They want to take what others have, enrich themselves in the meantime and give some of it to the needy in a way that keeps the needy needing more.
It is covetousness, a sin that goes back to a place in a beautiful garden where two believed the first lie. Ever since we have wanted stuff, more, free, and what belongs to someone else. We have wanted and believed that our lives will be made great by possessing what someone else has even if it means taking it from them because they don’t deserve to have so much. We can think for example of the multimillionaire Michael Moore who walked among the “Occupy Wall Street” campers as if he fit in. He did not but the Occupy folks did not quite get it. Hate, rage and desperation – as another Facebook Friend pointed out is what shapes the thoughts, actions and words of so many. It flows all directions.
We need our ears washed out with truth. We need our eyes cleansed with reality. The desires of our heart need to come not from the market place or political square but from our delight in our God. Coveting is wanting something that we do not need and actually belongs to someone else and going about doing whatever it takes to gain possession of it through any means possible. Even when it is dressed up in fancy evangelical words or progressive words or conservative words, or libertarian words, it remains a desire that drives our thoughts and decisions and how we treat one another. It misdirects our eyes from the Word of God.
It is an ancient problem that predates Republicans, Democrats, Progressives, Liberals, Conservatives, Lords, Peasants, Kings, Knights, Caesars, Barbarians, Romans, Greeks, Persians, Medes and any other human system of government. It is a problem that spawns hate, rage and desperation and this is what is overflowing in our society. We as God believers, are to be controlled by the Spirit of God, not by hate, rage and desperation. I know for myself, this is where the front line of my battle is. I must forsake the hate, rage and desperation and turn my seek God for it is the Hand of God that is favorable to all those who seek him. God and God alone is whom I am to serve and if I succeed in that it is only by the grace and mercy of God. “The Lord will accomplish what concerns me. Your lovingkindness O Lord is everlasting, do not forsake the works of your hand.” Ps 138:8.
Esengo Mingi 