April 16, 2016
#1815 Sink or Swim
2
Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we
commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
The man with words, Mr. Webster, shows us in many dictionaries
that words mean something. In my lifetime, 85 years, I have seen the honor of
work replaced by the desire for indolence... Generations of people growing up
in homes depending on welfare checks... willing to live off the hard working
people who pay taxes. Shame is a lost word in most vocabularies. It is no
longer a shame not to work. To honor illegitimacy, whether a baby born to
UN-witted biological parents, cheating-deceiving at the tax office, with a
plastic card or anywhere else that the law does not extend.
We would never have believed, as Americans, that a
socialist-communist such as a Senator Sanders would ever have been elected to
the U.S. Senate, let alone, become a "rock star" among young college
students as he seeks the Presidency. I come from a generation where it was an
honor to have a job, to provide for your own future and that of your family. My
parents, ancestors never thought about retirement, vacations, or even
entitlements. Our social security came from hard work and faith in an
omnipatent God. Adam and Eve, wearing leaves, were imposed with clothes by God
and were told to spend their lives working. Everywhere on this earth that
communism has been tried, it has failed. Basic as breathing, basic as a
conscious, the fulfillment-enjoyment of work.
Mr.
Sanders and other liberal socialist, mostly of the Democrat party, want free
college, free public housing, free food. This writer knew the fulfillment-joy
of hard-work ( Going to school during the day and working at night) to get through 8 years of University education, I received no "free stuff" from any
direction.) In my mind, as I worked to get my education, was the hardworking
parents at home, not ashamed of their sweat as they had labored to get me
through my early years of schooling. The
thought was always there "They had done the best they could". My meager preparation, small country school,
thirteen in my high school graduating class. Hardly prepared me for the
University, but " there was no free stuff", it was a matter of swim
or sink.
The
best education in the world, the best preparation in the world for dealing with
people, selling bibles, door to door, in the hot summer months. My ability to
deal with patients, my ability to "hold on" to a dollar, to empathize
with common people, came from these years of struggle. God help anyone who has
not been through the struggle. "Free stuff", regardless of things or idols
do not contribute to a productive future. The LARGER your egotism-your desire
for entitlements- the more your dependence on government, the SMALLER your God.
It
took me a long time to unpack the excessive baggage I was carrying around...
the poverty I had experienced and seen,
the injustice all around us, such as, "Why good people suffer"
and the rich and famous seem to escape all responsible behavior. I could not understand the abuse of children,
abuse of the disabled, abuse of the elderly, and the abuse of innocent animals.
Abuse of any type is so ugly. Our world
is chewed up with ugliness and God does not like ugly. "How could God
allow such injustice?" and then came the military... my experience with
warfare. How could God allow the destruction of innocent children... homes for
which poor people had worked and, as I traveled the world, how could I
understand the inequities in many cultures-nations. God let me know that he
did not prevent the sadistic treatment of his own son... Gods own son,
perfection personified. Jesus, went to a cruel cross, the most sadistic method
of death.
On a
remote island in the South Pacific a University professor from a great center
of Education, asked me if I would still believe in God IF he could prove to me
that God does not exist. I told him, "Your efforts would be futile. You
see, the holy spirit of God lives in my soul. God is as real to me as the very
air I breathe."
There
is a difference in the words free and gift. Mankind is besieged by the four
letter words sale or free. God gave man the world and everything in it. He gave
us his only son as a gift and belief in his son gives us life eternal. This is true liberty, true freedom.
