A Hope, and a Future

A Hope, and a Future

Back in early 2009, I wrote a post in which I declared my intention to “go Galt” meaning reduce our household income enough and consequently reduce the amount of taxes my family pays. The post struck a chord with a lot of people. It was Instalanched and Malkalanched and linked by many others. I was invited on several national radio and TV shows. (The radio shows I did, the TV, I declined.) At one time I was a small business owner; I employed people, and I paid a lot of money to contractors as well, as my business expanded.  I made decent contributions to our household income and to the government via taxes. Now, I don’t.

I wrote then:

Gas lines, unemployment, inflation, problems with terrorists… we have all this and more to look forward to, right down to the guy in the Oval Office lecturing us that we can’t keep our homes at the temperature we like.  At least Carter had the decency to put on a sweater and give the appearance of suffering right along with the rest of us.  President Obama can’t even do that.  These things are going to happen eventually anyway because the 40% cannot carry the rest of the country, nor should a moral society expect us to do so.  My goal is not to extend the misery; it’s to hasten the inevitable crash so we can recover quickly.

Do I want Obama to fail?  Aren’t I, as a Christian, required to pray for our president?  I do pray for him.  But I don’t pray for his successwhere his success means implementing policies which harm the country’s security, kill babies, increase poverty, and decrease freedom. The Alinskyite game playing is pathetic, trying to divide us with “have you beat your wife lately?” questions designed to “catch” conservatives in being “disloyal” to the President.  Are you now, or have you ever been, a fan of Rush Limbaugh?  Grow up!  I’m not hoping for economic failure.  I’m experiencing economic failure, and I’m hoping to return to economic success.

As the natural consequences of these disastrous polices – foreign policy based on magical thinking, energy policy designed to increase costs and cause shortages, economic policy that has already stolen big chunks out of people’s retirement funds by sending the stock market back to Clinton administration levels, with no floor in sight – the country is going to suffer.  I welcome that, to the extent necessary to cause people to re-think their attitudes and comprehend the results of their entitlement mentality.  By going John Galt – reducing my income to the point that I no longer subsidize anyone else via government imposed wealth transfers – I hope to hasten the inevitable collapse.  The H.E.N.R.Y.s feel the same way; people who are in the dreaded eeevil, mean capitalist pig $250,000 bracket are cutting back on their productivity.  As they should – where does society get the right to enslave these people?  The faster the 40% opts out, the sooner the collapse, and the sooner we can correct the situation.

Think of it as praying the alcoholic in your family will hit rock bottom sooner, rather than later.  It’s time to stop enabling the entitlement mentality.  It’s time to let go of our co-dependency and desire to be liked.  It’s time for an intervention.  It’s time to go John Galt.

We certainly have massive unemployment, inflation, and problems with terrorists. I fully believe that the gas lines are coming, given Obama’s war on pretty much all methods of producing energy except the “green” methods the government heavily subsidizes and which are run by Democrat friends and campaign contributors.

I didn’t like Romney (and complained about him bitterly on this blog and at Hot Air) but I did eventually get behind him and even came to believe – eventually – that he’d be a good President. But the media won Obama a second term, with it’s “move along, nothing to see here,” coverage of scandals which would have been major if they could have been tied to Republicans.  Apart from that, people wanted to believe that there is a free lunch, and they voted in the guy who promised them one.

So, here we are. More than half of the country is drinking the Koolaid, and now more than ever, I’m not really that interested in fighting to protect them from the consequences of their actions.  To paraphrase Mencken, let them have what they demanded – good and hard.

I’m not angry, and while what I’ve written sounds bitter, even to me, that’s really not how I feel. At the end of the day, I still believe that it is God who puts the kings on their thrones.  I still believe that God is sovereign.  Since God has decided that Obama shall be in charge another four years, then I have to believe that God has done so for our good.  Jeremiah 29:11, etc. That doesn’t mean that I believe the outcome of Obama’s presidency will be good in terms of having a healthy economy or a less corrupt government or more peace in the world.  I think the path the Democrat-media complex is forcing us down will lead to another depression.  And a nation full of Honey Boo Boo voters will buy the idea that a Republican party which controls just 1/2 of one branch of government somehow had the power to cause it.  And even then, God will still be sovereign and my hope will be in him, not in a political party.

I believe another four years of Obama will be good for us spiritually.  I believe our faith in God will be renewed – all the more so since it will be blatantly obvious that government will not provide good solutions for us.  I believe our zeal for God will be renewed – all the more so since our government is already moving to disrupt and control the practice of Christianity, with open attacks on religious freedom.  After decades of Communist rule in China, there are now more Christians in China than there are Communists.  Christianity has historically flourished in adversity, and it will do so in the United States, too.

Piper: Your Pastor Is Not Your Political Activist

A liberal in my family told me he did not attend church because it so infuriated him when the pastors incorporated conservative (excuse me, “reich-wing”) politics into the sermon.  I was perplexed.  But then, we’ve gotten very spoiled by our church leadership, who evidently understand that the kingdom of God is neither Republican nor Democratic, but instead is a monarchy.

Piper offers some very sound advice:

Don’t press the organization of the church or her pastors into political activism. Pray that the church and her ministers would feed the flock of God with the word of God centered on the gospel of Christ crucified and risen. Expect from your shepherds not that they would rally you behind political candidates or legislative initiatives, but they would point you over and over again to God and to his word, and to the cross.

… If the whole counsel of God is preached with power week in and week out, Christians who are citizens of heaven and citizens of this democratic order will be energized as they ought to speak and act for the common good. It’s your job, not mine. Don’t look to me to wave the flag for your vote. Or wave the flag for your candidate.

… My job is to feed the saints with such meals that they go out strengthened and robust and able to do the study and do the courage and do the action needed as salt and light in this world. And that will go away if you insist on the church and the ministry being the political leaders. It will and we can point to many where it has.

Yes.  And beyond that, it is baffling to me why people would look to their pastor for political leadership.  I go to my pastors for spiritual instruction; that is their expertise and they have gained my trust with many years of instruction, leadership and not least, their personal examples of humility and sanctification.  If they suddenly started preaching politics – in other words, building a kingdom here – I would find another church where the pastors are keeping their eyes on the prize.

Pastors generally have about an hour – or in some churches, less – to reach their congregation. In our church we have 20-30 minutes of worship, announcements, and greetings. Then we get down to business with a sermon averaging 70 minutes, sometimes followed by an altar call.  And that’s it. Some churches get in a Wednesday service, which is typically much less well attended than the Sunday morning service.  Anyone who thinks that a pastor should, in the brief window of time available to him to instruct his flock, waste even a minute of it on politics, is in my opinion an idiot.

The Entitlement Society We Should Cultivate

Reason #4,268 to read the Anchoress (emphasis added):

A few years before my brother died, he became ill and needed a very minor procedure. Without it, he would likely get worse and die. The doctors were shocked when my sister and I said, “of course we want you to do it.” To them it seemed like a no-brainer: who would want a life so reduced in quality? “It’s the life he has,” we said, “and he’s entitled to it. It may not be the life you think you’d want, but he loves music, and he has friends he laughs with, and he watches his tv shows and likes to sit outside and draw and listen to the birds. He loves flowers. It’s his life! No one is entitled to take it from him.” One of us even said — and I am not sure who, because either of us are capable of being this direct: “one day this might be all the life you have, and you might find yourself wanting to live it, even if others can’t see the point.”

They didn’t like it, but they did the procedure and my brother lived for four more years before passing in his sleep. They were his years, even if they made no sense to anyone else, and he was entitled to them.

Read the rest.

Life Upside-Down

My life has been more or less turned upside down in the last year. I’m writing less and less these days, even for this blog.  All the things I was intensely interested in – like politics – are increasingly taking a back seat to just getting by, given the facts that my disabled mother lives with us now, and we’re approaching the end (thank you, God!) of building the addition for our house for her to live in.

This season has been, in many ways, quite terrible. And yet I’d do it again if I could. At least, if I knew then what I know now, I’d do it again.  And I’d absolutely suck the marrow out of each and every experience.  Each time my sins of selfishness and an unloving heart were revealed, I’d double down on praying for repentance.  Each time I had the opportunity to work harder, I’d do it without complaining the way I did about working on the roof in 100+ degrees.  Each time I had a chance to do something for my husband – who has worked infinitely harder than I have – I’d do it.

Unfortunately I can’t get a do-over for those things. But now, during Easter week, I’m reminded that I can have a fresh start. And I’m experiencing a gratitude that I never did back when my life was right-side-up.  The despair that the disciples experienced after Jesus’ crucifixion paled in comparison to their joy at his resurrection, and on a smaller scale, I’m experiencing the same thing.  Every one of my sins is forgiven. Every day is new.  And life upside-down will be better than I could have imagined a year ago.