Having spent many years reading history, I am familiar with the rise and fall of nation states. Studying Biblical history, one comes across great empires which literally have ceased to exist. The awareness that all things are passing is one of a historian's gifts. It allows one to remember that there is nothing permanent on this earth. No ruler. No nation. No state of affairs.
Watching our leadership flounder with addressing the issue of debt ceilings (using their typical blame-game antics) has the stench of decay to me. We are falling apart as 'The' world power and literally within a very short while our status in the world may be changing. As an American that bothers me. As a Christian I have a broader horizon.
It is pretty popular to blame "Washington" and surely the politcal hacks and power brokers have a big part of the blame. But in reality, these people do not drop out of another dimension. Truth be told, they grow up among us and are elected by us. The sum total of our desires and wishes, at some point, get translated, at least some of the time, into their decisions. We are a people who love to live now and pay later. We do not like to delay gratification. Is there any wonder that people who are in debt would produce a government that survives on debt? Today I watched a Saturday Night Live review of the 1990's. At one point they had Dana Carvey doing his Ross Perot. I was laughing away until Carvey/Perot spoke about the budget deficit of 500 million dollars. Like a bucket of cold water! How we long for the good old days when debt was measured in hundreds of millions!
We have long known that we are spending more than we take in. In a country where half the people do not pay taxes and an almost equal percent receive checks it is hard to conceive that it is only the rich getting a free ride. On the other hand, those with money and power do usually find a way to make ends meet.
Whatever the other points of the debate, one question looms large in my mind. How long will the unraveling of America go on before someone rises up and does something? And when they do, how pleasant/unpleasant will it be? I, for one, am not optimistic. But I am hopeful. I look to Jesus.
I've long believed that our nation would have to fall because I don't see many prophecies foretold to us to come about any other way. At some point, we (the USA) must become irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteAs you said, the real question is how long will that take? I suspect that will only be known in past tense.
"But I am hopeful. I look to Jesus." Exactly the answer for the "jittery society" we live in these days. Another great post!
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