Financial Stress

#534

I was born during the height of the Great Depression. I could easily have titled this commentary “Canning Jars and Potato Hills”. The thing that kept most farm families from starving to death during this horrendous drought or desert was self preservation. City people were hungry. My grandparents told of visiting one of their relatives in town. They were embarrassed...just how hungry they were...how little food they had on the table...even for company. The children of this family, my grandfathers brother, became some of the wealthiest people in Eastern North Carolina. The husband of one, chairman of the board, one of the largest state's utilities.

On the farm, when the potatoes were dug, they were put into potato hills (potatoes piled in a pyramid, pine straw and other insulation over the potatoes and then soil packed over the entire mound with an opening at the top, covered, to keep weather out). Then, anyone could retrieve potatoes from the hill. All garden excess was canned or dried and then, there were farm animals and wild animals used for cooking. Farm people, other than not having any cash, were able to survive because they had few other expenses. They heated their houses with cut wood, they knew how to raise a window in the summer. I have here in my office a kerosene table lamp which we use for light and by which I studied at night. FDR, like Obama, typical liberal democrats, (FDR actually had several of vowed communist in his cabinet, even Henry Wallace, vice president) tried to solve the nations problems by digging the hole deeper. Mr. Obama, destroyed perfectly good automobiles and then loaned money to the owners of the clunkers in order for them to buy new cars...they could not pay for the old ones. With Roosevelt, 1933, after he had chopped down growing crops of corn, tobacco, cotton, and had killed and buried 50 million pigs in his agriculture stabilization program, first started “parity” in which each family got two dollars then, 1935, he started social security which is now broke. Likewise, liberal, communist tinged democrats started, 1965, medicare and medicaid...now both broke. Carter, 1980, started the housing debacle “Fannie and Freddie” whereby people who could not pay their rent, many without any means of paying, were put into houses in which they could not afford. ALL government housing programs are broke. The postal service is broke, the veterans administration is broke. Every government program is broke. Now, your only last freedom, your last privacy, your choice of health care is under government control with all the warts of the insurance companies, now will be a disaster and soon broke. ON THIS YOU CAN DEPEND.

The question now, what you can depend for financial success?

1.Humbleness: Several generations have been spoiled, watching television constantly, seeing nothing but the good life, lives of “the rich and famous” thinking that everyone should live that way. Children are spoiled into thinking they must have “designer clothing” top notch “stardom” athletic shoes...new expensive car to drive to school, everything they want...”taste buds” for only the most expensive foods regardless of nutrition. I went through eight years of university training to become a Doctor, medical officer in the US Army where I lost all eyesight, living on one dollar a day, never wearing anything but second hand clothes. Now a multi-millionaire, I still live very much the same way. So, this depression will not bother me very much. Frugal living, a Christ inspired existence, has enabled me to give much of my income to charity...particularly disabled student scholarships who have been ignored by the government, the public, everyone else. “The largest minority in the country are the disabled...estimate thirty two percent. The black population is only thirteen percent.” THERE ARE NO CIVIL RIGHTS FOR THE DISABLED. Next to slavery, the greatest shame of this nation is its treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped citizens. “I am a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected, decorated, medical officer veteran, of the Korean era.” I have a right to speak. The disabled veteran gets less pension than the college ROTC student for maintenance. William Manchester (biographer of General Douglas MacArthur), a 100% disabled veteran, said, “no one cares, least of all your country.”

2. Connectedness: Keep in touch with your family and friends, your church, your community. Let me warn you, of all people, your family cares least. Animals travel in packs. It is only when one wanders off from the group that he is most easily attacked by the world, the flesh, the devil. Someone may be able to help you. In the Great depression of the thirties when some of my relatives lost their farms, they moved their possessions into family barns and lived with family members. In each small town, mules with carts would line the streets. Even those who owned vehicles could not afford to drive them. I remember, at my grandfathers great and beautiful farm, the old tractor, rare in that time, sat idle...so did the old truck. My grandmother could afford to drive her car on desperate missions. The pastor rode a horse to church. Church yards were full of buggies and surreys but, the church houses were full, people at the front on their knees pleading to a merciful God for help. Twenty seven times in the book of Psalms, “the mercies of the Lord endure forever”. Your greatest help, in time of need, always available, Gods promise to never leave nor forsake those who trust in Him.

3. Mind-set: Without God, you cannot know God. When God permeates the trillions of cells in your mortal body you will have the survival skills necessary to overcome anything. God wanted me to see the poverty of the world, most of it below the 30th parallel. (I have traveled around the world 8 times, had my passport stamped in 157 countries) I have seen poverty such as this country has not experienced, YET. Mind you, God is still in control of everything...even the hairs on your head are numbered. Can you imagine what it would be like to have ten to twenty airliners crash each day in the world? This is how many babies are killed each day in this country (3000 each day, 1,452 black). God has not forgotten, nor should we his wrath, for the killing of his chief creation. The pagans in Washington, particularly the White House, may not believe or care. Conservatism is a mind set. We have heard that “only the strong will survive”. I assure you, conservation will help you survive.

4. Perseverance: At the time of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the rest of the world was not in depression. Most of the world's other nations are worse off than America. (UK, Iceland, Dubai, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal) At the time of the Great Depression, America had 90% of the worlds gold which backed up our money. Today, our money is backed up by thin air, the world considers our fiat dollars worthless. I'm told, in Hong Kong, people laugh when you try to pay for anything with dollars. Persevere in your patriotism. (what else can you do?) Persevere in your faith (what else can you do?) Persevere in your saving and conservation habits. (what else can you do?) Persevere in your decency, your Christ like witness to the world around you. (What else can you do?) God's love is unconditional. He loves us in good times and in bad times. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only [so], but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”. (Rom 5:1-5)

This very morning, I sent a message to my only child, my son, long time foreign missionary, now professor at a leading seminary. “Can you imagine what it was like, for Christ, during his ministry, living and working among the tyrants of the occupying Roman Empire?” Your writer lives by faith, not sight. Most of you will learn to live not knowing what the future holds. Learn, the one who holds the future. I'm told that the definition of faith is the security found in the cleft of a rock or under a mother bird's wing. Faith, is a verb. Faith, is action, based on belief, sustained by confidence. Opening the Bible is like looking into the mind of God. The verse exactly half way between the 1189 chapters of the Bible, God tells us to trust in him, and put no confidence in men. Surely, by now, you should have learned not to put any confidence in politicians. In the whims and wiles of the Satanic forces which want to cripple you in your race toward life's goal. Life in good times or bad times is more than a destination. Don't get trapped by looking at distractions along the highway.