I was just reading an email from a prayer network about the health care reform bill. The usual comments were there. The comments about how it is going to give our government more control than our founding fathers ever intended federal government to have and more control than some of us want them to have and more control than the people who don't think it's a problem now are going to want them to have later on AND how this nation is moving toward socialism. Both points I agree with. There is this cry in the church to not let this bill happen. The prayer organizations are doing all they can NOW to rally people to pray.

But another thought crosses my mind - are we not part of the problem? Are we the people of God from all the different thought streams not actually walking in agreement with the very government that we are now so disgruntled with? Have we not encouraged them to continue on this path?

So many people are without insurance - that's true. Larry and I, because of the ups and downs of our life have at times been without insurance. It's definitely a hard place to be in so I'm not unsympathetic to the situation of so many.

But the thought of savings accounts crossed my mind so I trying here to work out a thought train. (And yes big brother - I know I'm probably short on some facts here - won't stop me from thinking.) Once upon a time in our nation people understood that saving money and being prepared for emergencies was important. People saved money. Then the government decided that people should invest their money in the stock market so they stopped paying interest on savings. It wasn't worth it any more. This has also been seen in the housing situation. Once upon a time people knew they would not buy a house unless they had several thousand dollars to put down up front. No downpayment - no house. The the government decided that people should not have to save up for downpayments and they figured out how to get around that with the 2nd mortgage to go with your 1st mortgage. And - hey - what about those adjustable rate mortgages that just assumed that in a few years you would be making a thousand more dollars a month? Larry and I have benefited from this- we were happy to get it at the time but we now look at it in the larger picture and can see how we have been part of the problem too.

In a sort of a nutshell I would put it this way. We as a nation began to focus on our "rights". Our right to have a house and nice cars and insurance co-pays and credit - the right to live large whether we could afford it or not.

So now we have no money and we have no real understanding of what it means to live in our "responsibilities". We don't seem to think that we should have to provide for ourselves through steady work and making preparations for future probabilities. Our government does not encourage it and I don't know many leaders within the church that encourages it. I feel sure that many of these calling for prayer and many of the followers of these people are living the very lives that our society/government has taught them to live. I am trying not to make judgement calls but what's out there is out there.

So here we are again. I think we are trying to deal with something we don't like without going to the roots that brought forth the fruit. I know my explanation is simplistic. I'm sure there's a lot of other information that would apply here and perhaps there would be some tweaking of the ideas. That's fine but I'm confident of the essence of what I'm saying.

The people of God are very good at getting caught up in surface issues and not going to the heart of the matter because the heart of a matter usually involves our own selves. Every place that individual people turn away from responsibility the government is going to step in. There will always be people who want to rule over others and if we let them - they will. The way to stop them is to be willing to do the work and take the responsibilities ourselves.

Could it be that God is trying to press on the hearts of his own people to get on their faces with hearts of repentance for their own culpability. Could it be that the things happening in our nation are like the things that would happen in Israel and God would tell them over and over again how to get back on track but they loved their comfort and so they wouldn't hear him? They would simply gripe about the things they didn't like and make sacrifices that became totally unacceptable to God. God would speak to them for years and years. His mercy would press him to give more time until the day would come when suddenly disaster was there. They were warned and the signs were there. I wonder if we will see this repeated here in our lovely land of milk and honey.