As a reminder: This is the final part of a series based on my recent illness ramblings. Start with #1 for the context.
Note #4: We are NOT ready as a people to make good decision about the future!
If the future is up in the air in the next four years, we should take stock (carefully) of where we are as a nation. Assuming that we are willing to reject a vision of the future in which the government rules over our personal and national economies, where will we go from there? My sense is that we are NOT ready to make either the commitments or the changes necessary to change our country back into a land where freedom and responsibility can and will dwell together. Here are a few of the fault lines where we are apt to fail:
- We too often take a simplistic view of the change that needs to happen. Many want to “go back to the Constitution”. I would love this, but we have to be ready to bear the responsibility that our government bears now. We are not ready for this. Not even close. If we had freedom, as the Constitution allows, we would need to care for our aging parents, take responsibility for the education of our children, save ample money for our retirement, avoid personal debt, and dial back our standard of living (most are living in a fantasy land now).
- Freedom means that we must bear responsibility for our fellow citizen. Today, that is forced on us in a costly manner by our government. If this money were given back to us, we should use it to help those in need. We should do this, first, simply by tithing. This might be all that is needed. Today, tithing would fix most problems. We will not now. If not now, when?
- We are not ready to radically rebalance the power between Washington and our state and local authorities. Right now, the root of so many problems in not in the politics of Washington, but in the power of Washington. We need a Washington that only handles truly federal issues. The rest of the issues and the bulk of our tax dollars need to be spent by state and local governments which are closer to us and more accountable to us. Today, I fear, we will only rearrange the furniture when we need to buy a new home. This would mean taking up our cross and serving each other locally in government. Washington has taken on these responsibilities because we have not wanted to pay the price, the heavy price, of true freedom.
- Our biblical moorings have been so washed away that we will not know where to go to find a solid foundation on which to build.
So, I am not too hopeful about the future. God is gracious.
