March Daffodils

Survivors! 

Snow and ice pounded my neighbor’s daffodils – They sprang up in the warm sunshine of a few weeks ago, but have had to survive recent icy rain and snow.  Their hardiness fascinated me as I have watched them holding up in the face of the intemperate weather. They are act as a little goad to get a grip and quit griping.

I gripe a lot about how bad things are – that is, how different the world seems from the one in which I thought we would be living.  

This is one scary place! What’s scarier is how we describe what we see; it communicates  frustration more than solutions. News of current events, and the reporters and commentators feel and sound as bitter as the recent icy blasts in Dallas –polarizing has a new adjectival dimension for me.  Moreover, it’s hard to laugh when popular entertainers lean on the F-bomb crutch for laughs to jokes anchored firmly to straw man arguments.   

Good Grief! Have I become like the grousers I used to hate to be around? 

Yes.

That’s why those resilient little flowers intrigued me.  The times may be brutal, and bring much that is unexpected. Our social commentators may be harsh -- a bit like our weather has been.  But I can weather it  -- even flourish. That is true even though a friend said daffodils reminded her of flowers she used to place on graves.

Funereal?

About time to sow those wildflower seeds. (Seeds)

o   Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions. ~Edward R. Murrow

o   Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense, but the past perfect! ~Owens Lee Pomeroy

Heart Issues -- edited for cartoon*

 *Trying to comment on today's world is difficult -- from WORLD MAGAZINE this cartoon sums up   so well what I think


Published shortly after World War II, A Book of Days for Christians has been a reliable companion since I discovered it while estate sailing in late 2007. Richardson Wright’s book of mediations seems fresh – and applicable even though he quotes from Christians, most of whom are strangers to me. (My fault – not their’s.)

In 1951, the year the little devotional was published, the Korean conflict heated up – i.e., the backdrop of M.A.S.H. It was  a time much like our own: we’d come out of  two world wars, survived financial troubles; we now faced powerful adversaries. Television was giving itself awards – the Emmys. News of sports, entertainment, the Middle East, nuclear weapons and the arms race had precedence – religion, not so much. We didn't know all that Stalin was doing in the fifties. 

 In 2015, we’ve just been through the Super Bowl, the Grammys and a tribute to Saturday Night Live.  Russia and the Middle East are still in our news – so is a different kind of arms race. A group of people is systematically and gruesomely murdering other people – and we are holding back from stopping it. 

The reading for February 14 hit my heart. Describing a bauble that delighted his friends, Mr. Wright correctly described a familiar image – I have a fun necklace with one: three cute monkeys, one with hands firmly over his eyes, the next his ears, and the third his mouth that they may see no evil, hear no evil, nor, speak no evil.  (pages 55-56) He goes on:

. . . Of the these three only the last makes sense. The other two are pretty poor ideals to follow.

Refusing to see or hear evil around us is sheer cowardice. We can’t say it doesn’t exist, we can’t just explain it away. We must face it boldly, whether it crops up at home, or in the office, factory, market place, government. The swift wrath with which our Lord chased   the moneychangers out of the Temple followed on His seeing and hearing their corruption. Nor for a moment did He hesitate to accuse them of making His Temple a den of thieves.

The right emotion about sin can only be roused and sustained by the right emotion about God.  ~ Kenneth E. Kirk

What is going on . . . it’s like seeing Hitler rise to power again, albeit in different garb – and hearing Neville Chamberlain declare, “Peace in our Time!”  

Evil seems to pervade. 

Sometimes it may be so astonishing we can’t believe or understand what we are seeing; sometimes, like a frog in a kettle, we are inured to its danger.  There is still time to speak – and to pray that those who have been given the authority to govern will be men and women who understand the times.  (1 Chronicles 12:32) 

Meanwhile, reading though Leviticus is hardly reassuring me. “But, I didn’t know” is no excuse.

Esther 4:14

Exercising Our Freedom, We Better Count the Cost

Poking fun at people and our institutions is as basic a pleasure as eating and drinking. Jane Austen slyly acknowledged this as Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice observed: “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?” 

Today, the sport is deadly. The marvels of media technology, coupled with a revolution of human rights have given many in the West unimagined freedoms to mock each other’s most deeply beliefs, exposing what we think are each others’ hypocrisy.  We can say or print just about anything and with the Internet, talk radio or cable TV we can find an audience.

Yet, in these audiences are folks who dislike the clever little jokes at their expense. They take revenge – and people, who might not have been contributors to odious political commentary, die. For example in the most recent terrorist attack in Paris, some people died who had nothing to do with the offensive cartoons that upset the terrorists.

 2015 was barely one week old, and what will be for me its signature is the video of a French police officer.  Wounded, begging for mercy, then executed by a fellow Muslim this image haunts me, as do so many in recent years.  

 

Officer Slain

Would that Muslims could rein in those amongst them who wage war with any who do not embrace their religion.  In recent time, the Germans could not stop the Nazis, the Japanese their militarists or the Italians their fascists. And the church, visible and invisible, in these countries suffered right along through the wars necessary to stop the terror these groups perpetrated.

The more things change – the more they stay the same.

I don’t want to defend to the death the coarse commentary that many believe are their inalienable rights. Nor, do I want our children and any one else to die defending these rights! But, these days are dangerous, crazy times when words are still  more deadly than sticks and stones!  It isn’t self-censorship that we need – it is common sense that counts the cost of who might die because I shot off my mouth or pen!

Doug posted links to two articles that come close to expressing the unease – anger –sorrow – frustration and exasperation the past few days have caused:

Provocation is No Defense for Jihadists:  Don't think they will stop at stupid and vicious left-wing satirists.

I Am Not Charlie Hebdo: Insult is the lowest – and now most dangerous – form of free speech -  

Americans must choose our response carefully – in what is perhaps the third World War, or the continuation of the first one.   The church, more so!

¹⁰ A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. ¹² For we^[a] are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

¹³ Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. ¹⁴ Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. (Ephesians 6:10-14, The New Living Translation)

Conversations I Missed

Puttering around my autumn garden, means often seeing events and conversations in a different light. And I see I misunderstood many events, and blew many opportunities for good conversations. Often for the very reason that Judge Judy – my current obsession – keeps telling belligerent folks:  “Speak not! You need to put on your listening ears!” when television litigants try to talk past her opinions. 

Is she talkin’ to me?

Many conversations I never began – or properly finished – because I opened my mouth and shut my ears.  (Proverbs 14:29; James 1:9) Stopped up ears and flapping lips are usually symptoms of pride, impatience, and projection – impulses that ended more conversations than I care to remember.  Pride and impatience may be familiar conversation-enders; but projection –thinking I know what someone is thinking or feeling – can stop more than talking.

I think back to times around the kitchen table, when I visited my parents who had retired early to South Carolina to care for my grandmother.  Because I’d spent eighteen years with them, I knew what was on their minds. So, I blocked many conversational openings.  Now -- remembering they would have been about my age back then – when they tried to make conversation, I am not so sure I knew so much about what they were thinking.  I know I never asked them how they were, really.  

One would think I’d get over the impulse to project as I grew old matured. Sadly, assuming I know is a hard-dying habit!

Sometimes my mother made a big deal about her poor health. I remember the night before she died, and how sick she said she was. I knew what she was up to, and I would not be drawn into her game.  But when she died the next day, I knew I didn’t know how the imminence of death might feel to one worried about it . . . and facing it is no game.

Getting our garden ready for winter gives me time to think about more than trimming back bushes and mulching – and making sure a little colorful cheer is evident in the frosty flower beds.  Raking and digging can turn up memories of some immature, intemperate, and ignorant comments to conversations that might have yielded better reminiscences, had I gotten over sooner my own pride, impatience and propensity to project.

Ah, hindsight.

Planting, seeds or pansies – digging in the dirt -- reminds me, now that I see so well after the fact, offer a hand to someone who might welcome a bit of help. Lessons learned the hard way – even if some of us are slow learners  -- could make a good topic for conversation, if we are willing to listen to each other.

It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts. ~Attributed to Harry S Truman

Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon. 

~Alexander Pope

The [woman] who is too old to learn was probably always too old to learn. ~Henry S. Haskins

Beware Using the F Words!

Sweet Blessings

Kind words aren’t strangers when everything is going my way, like when when it’s a relatively quiet morning, and I can sip my coffee with no interruptions. It’s when I am crossed, that I default into sharp tones and cutting remarks. 

Three F’s have enabled me: fatigue, frustration and fear – they were a handy excuse to let ‘er rip.  God! I have said some bad things – and thought worse things. 

Reading an interview of a woman battling cancer triggered a flood of  memories of times I used F words to excuse my unkindness to my family or friends because I felt lousy.

The wonder is I can try again to speak with kindness. (Psalm 118:24) But with that wonder will also come an aggravation – the proportions of which I could use again as an excuse to use words as weapons.

Today, I read about a practical restraint.  Kara Tippetts*, facing the destruction cancer brings asked the elders in her church simply,  “. . . that I would not use illness as an excuse to be unkind to my family.” (Trusting God with Terminal Cancer)

·      When sleep eludes me, fatigue is not an excuse to be unkind to anyone, those closest to me.

·      When my body won’t cooperate, frustration is not an excuse to be unkind to anyone who is doing what I can’t.

·      When my mind wanders into too many what-if’s, fear is not an excuse to be unkind to anyone – especially because they, too, are walking through daunting or vexing times. 

In others’  words:

By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach. ~Winston Churchill

Don't be yourself — be someone a little nicer. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not. ~Samuel Johnson

Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own. ~Adam Lindsay Gordon

*Mundane Faithfulness -- Kara Tippetts' Blog

Three Simple Sentences

From the mouth of a fictional character came the best three-sentence summary of who I want to be:

You is kind. You is smart. You is important.

(Aibileen Clark The Help)

And that those whom I love and treasure would know they are kind, smart and important.

How much better our mental and emotional health would be if this is what we believed about ourselves!

It’s easy to encourage those I love with this wisdom – not so much with those who annoy, frustrate or infuriate me. I often have difficulty extending to this description to those with whom I disagree.  I don’t think they are kind, smart, or important!  

Yet, the tender resolve with which Aibileen often spoke these simple truths – a woman who had endured humiliating cruelty – to strengthen the heart of a little girl whose cowardly mom inflicted great harm upon Mae,  illuminated and illustrated a Scripture I can recite but fail often to live:

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others.

Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.

(Philippians 2:3)

   

It wasn’t a suggestion – He urged them, who by the way, were in the midst of hard times, to practice these principles.   J. B. Phillips’ translation puts some flesh on the bare bones of Paul’s exhortation.

 Never act from motives of rivalry or personal vanity, but in humility think more of each other than you do of yourselves. None of you should think only of his own affairs, but should learn to see things from other people’s point of view.

Three simple sentences that could renew our personal well-being; truth that might reawaken and restore marriages, or revitalize our parenting routines, or help us grow old more gracefully.  And just perhaps, this attitude might rescue the downward slide of political discourse!

Can you imagine how our conversations around the dinner table or in the US Capitol might change if we regarded those who frustrate us with the conviction, You is Kind. You is Smart. You is Important.

My Humble Review: 

The Help

Gardening Update:

It’s not that I understand the Bible better reading outside in the morning – I think I hear better – even with muffled sounds of the toll way and Love Field’s air traffic.  So, when I settled into my comfy outdoor chair, coffee in hand, I was not disappointed when I heard from the Lord – but I was startled.  

What startled me was what I did not see. 

 When I opened my Bible to begin a review of Deuteronomy, I could see the pages were filled with underlined words or whole verses; pithy notes; quotes; comments and cross-references colorfully marked; testifying how often I studied Deuteronomy!  There, right in front of me in black and white – and red and blue and green – the reminders of clear instruction – care -- and warning.  

• God didn’t choose Israel because of her worthiness.
• God hated the wickedness of the other nations.
• God did not want His people to embrace their ways, or their religions.
• God wanted Israel to show His greatness in all they did and said -- And 
• God is faithful  

The Evidence

Then, I saw what I hadn’t noted in previous study:  God’s indictment of His people’s conduct -- their constant grumbling, and persistent willfulness – observations about Israel that apply to me. In Deuteronomy 1:27 no marks reminded me  that God hears me “grumbling in my tent.”  Nor, had I underlined what God told Moses to tell the Israelites: I spoke to you, but you would not listen. (Deut. 1:43, emphasis added) Had I never see a connection to me? 

These may seem mild compared to Israel’s later failures – but they are the very seeds from which so much bitter fruit grew. Discontent with God’s way and preferring my own course to His are ruinous roots that wreck my autumn’s garden. And they wreck many other seniors’ gardens when we imagine our age allows us special privileges.  

The older we get, the more we may feel we have the right to speak our mind, and to do as we please. Babies may get away with it, but people who complain and refuse to take directions are hard to be around, especially in old age.  Scripture never grants that right to any saint – no matter how senior -- to be unrestrained. God did not excuse Moses’ outburst of temper.  He won't excuse mine. His ear is attuned to my grumbling and His eye to my failure to represent Him. He saw Israel’s willfulness, and He won’t stop overseeing me in my golden years. 

Note: Trash Can

Reading through Moses’ last sermons to God’s people reminds me that God still has work for old people. He expects obedience and restraint from the elderly – and what He expects, He enables: 

“Listen to me, descendants of Jacob,
    all you who remain in Israel.
I have cared for you since you were born.
    Yes, I carried you before you were born.
I will be your God throughout your lifetime—
    until your hair is white with age.
I made you, and I will care for you.
    I will carry you along and save you." (Isaiah 46:3-5)

The sad reality though is how many old people have never heard the Gospel of grace, and feel trapped in the terrifying twilight of their years. This need not be so! 

Who will go for us asked the Lord of Isaiah --- Those of us who can, may go – and offer friendship and encouragement; those of us who aren’t as mobile can pray. Pick up a tool, while the light remains – the harvest might look white for more than one reason! (John 4:35) And quit kvetching!  

Even in old age they will still produce fruit;
    they will remain vital and green.
They will declare, “The Lord is just!
    He is my rock!
    There is no evil in him!” (Psalm 92)



Also See: 

The Week Begins – April 29 last year. 

1st ROSES 2014!

Houston, . . .We Have a Problem

Kreig Barrie WORLD Magazine 3.21.14

Here is a  phrase that originally meant a life-threatening problem. Now when we hear it, it’s usually a precursor to disclosing a great big mess.  Well, church, we have a problem.  And that problem is how we stand up for what we believe, especially if we anchor our beliefs to Scripture.

The Bible is the bedrock of the church’s confession. (Psalm 19; 2 Timothy 2:16-17)

But, the Bible is bigger than our favorite verses.  We can’t snip a few “Thus says the Lord’s” out of context and convince those who see things differently -- especially when too many of us don’t make Bible study a practice.

"I see the problem as analogous to obesity in America. We have an awful lot of people who realize they're overweight, but they don't follow a diet," [Doug] Birdsall said. "People realize the Bible has values that would help us in our spiritual health, but they just don't read it."

If they do read it, the majority (57 percent) only read their Bibles four times a year or less. Only 26 percent of Americans said they read their Bible on a regular basis (four or more times a week). (Caleb Bell RNS)

The church is losing members because of political issues, science issues, and issues surrounding sexual choices. (Why Millennials are less religious) And the exodus has been going on for a while – charges of judgmental hypocrisy fly, and awkwardly, sometimes stick. 

In the past two days, World Vision the great humanitarian and Christian ministry stirred up many of us when they announced henceforth they would hire married homosexual couples to work in their ministry. Franklin Graham caught flak for chastising World Vision; his words were called scathing and despicable. (Kirsten Powers) Was his rebuke cutting and wrong? Then, how do we – the church – reform ourselves? (Matthew 5:23, 18:15; Galatians 6:1-2) How do we share the news with each other that when God said it, He meant it, and His words are not optional? Alas, instruction in God’s word may becoming just another conversation. (Talking Around the Problem) 

We are supposed to be helping each other OUT of our grave clothes, not telling one another we look great in them and should keep them on for the Wedding Feast.  We have a choice now – if we have ears to hear. (Colossians 3:12-16)

  

And by the way, a firm, loving rebuke can work: World Vision recently rescinded its change of policy. (Change of mind)  

An Older Blog Piece:

 (Helping Each Other Out of our Grave Clothes)

A Half-Century Later --

My Recollections of November 22 1963

 Has moved! Please click through to http://autumns-garden.com/account-november-22-1963/

A New Commission

A distinct delight that these years in Dallas have given me is a weekly art class at Pigment School of the Arts. Though the most of the students are primary students, a few times a week, older students are welcomed – and I am among the oldest. Since 2006, I have enjoyed the camaraderie of painters and potters, and the tutelage of an accomplished artist and teacher.  And I have produced . . . art. 

Now, all my accomplishments are not ready for a prime time exhibition at the Kimball, or Dallas Museums, but I placed a few of my paintings in a recent show that Pigment Hosted. And someone liked a painting!  They wanted to buy it! It was however only on loan to the exhibition, having been promised to Douglas, who is unfailingly supportive.  

(Doesn’t that sound . . . a wee bit cheeky: It was only on loan . . .?)

The subject is a bright red cardinal nestled in snow-laden trees in western Maryland, painted from a photograph that Dave Wolfe snapped. I loved the photo, and felt my picture fell short of conveying the moment Dave recorded. So, in addition to it being promised, I was uncertain of its worth. However, I agreed to reproduce it, for a modest fee.

Because so many of the students attending classes at Pigment are six decades younger than I am, they are transparently kind in assessing my work in the studio.   On a few occasions, they have made especially thoughtful and positive comments. But recently, when one young student learned I had expressed reservations about the painting’s worth, she stopped her art own project and wrote me a note.

I was stunned and deeply touched and remembered how powerful a tonic a few kind words spoken from the heart can be. 

Emboldened by such kindness, I started my first commissioned painting, hopefully reproducing what first attracted someone’s interest – alas, with instructions that I leave out the bird.

Kind words are like honey -- sweet to the soul and healthy for the body. (Proverbs 16:24) 

What to Think About

 

Where to direct my brain for exercise nowadays is tricky. Use it or lose it, the saying goes. We live in interesting times – a description some think to be to be a colorful curse, and I don’t like wasting resources that might be waning!  Reading is a super workout for the little gray cells – However, as much as I like a good read, I love a good movie. And this year we had aplenty!

Unfortunately, the annual self-congratulatory party the movie industry throws itself was enough to make me swear off future viewing. I sure wasted some wits watching the 2013 Oscars! Oscar night has not been the most edifying TV viewing for several years – or entertaining. The years when the movies had “too much ‘Good Friday’ and not enough ‘Easter’,” a description used by Martin Scorsese’s priest, I skipped Oscar night.  This year though, I had seen three of the films, and liked them. (Spirituality at the Oscars) So, I tuned in and taped it. 

I understood the host’s humor would be edgy – but he was never that good. Though a current cultural icon, I don’t remember his name – and won’t try to retrieve it.  He was a regrettable case in point of how miserable the modern propensity of mocking plays. (The Last Laugh)  None of his verbal skewers were much above the bathroom or gutter humor, until a zinger about John Wilkes Booth  and Abraham Lincoln took it lower, made me recoil.      

Yes, I am about to wrap myself up in robes of righteous indignation. But please bear with me.

That an American could mock the assassination of the 16^th President of the United States, given the powerful movie in the running this year for so many awards, floored me. That any in the audience would laugh shows how poorly we grasp the history to which the movie, Lincoln, referred! How could anyone joke about gun violence – much less, we laugh about? And what are we thinking about if we laugh?

Am I missing something?

Yeah – I am missing about the hour and half that it took me to fast forward through a disappointing and depressing extravaganza. 

^8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. (Philippians 4:8 The Message)

The 2013 Oscar Awards

Living with Smart Technology

A conversation with a friend this morning reminded me how “wired” I am.  I am so reliant on “smart” things, but I have NO idea how any of them works. If one malfunctions – well, remember HAL in 2001?

Take the other night: Doug wanted to know if I heard a buzzing. 

I did.

We walked around the house, putting our ears up to the microwave, freezer, refridge . . . we even opened the back door to listen to the AC unit.  Finally, I listened to my purse and drew out my phone, which was  trembling – no kidding – and emitting an annoying buzz. I couldn’t turn it on to diagnose the issue – it reminded me of when one our kids were sick, and before they were old enough to tell me where it hurt.

Was the battery low?

I plugged it in. No response, only buzzing. Doug nestled it within a dishtowel to deaden its persistent din. An hour later, it was still complaining and I wanted to go to bed.

Should I leave it plugged in?

What if a low battery was not the issue, and keeping it connected to a power source would fuel an explosion?

I remembered computer batteries can set a computer on fire –or something to that effect. So, I unplugged the phone, still kept it wrapped up, and set beside the front door. Yes, I did – that way the firemen could easily find the source of the fire that might consume us in the night. Just enough knowledge to be useless!

No such flare-up disturbed us. By the morning – the phone indicated to Doug its battery was low. So,  I plugged it in and within an hour, all was well. I still don’t know exactly why the phone, which I thought was charged 65%, went nuts.

So, although I don’t exactly why or how any of my electronic devices do anything, these conveniences have become oh so necessary for comfort and amusement, and community.  And I am not alone. The world is as dependent on invisible power, most of us cannot comprehend, for our entire well-being.

Consider our responses when we misplace a remote control, or the smart technology guiding our lives fails.  If I am not tearing the couch apart, looking for the control, I am yelling at a recording patiently asking me who I am, where I am, and in a word describe my problem. Or, I have just disconnected myself from its probing questions, or any possibility of solving the problem my smart appliance has dropped in my lap.  

Am I behaving toward the increasingly ubiquitous technology the way anti-theists react to God?

. . . Many smart technologies are heading in another, more disturbing direction. A number of thinkers in Silicon Valley see these technologies as a way not just to give consumers new products that they want but to push them to behave better. Sometimes this will be a nudge; sometimes it will be a shove. But the central idea is clear: social engineering disguised as product engineering. (Is Smart Making Us DUMB?)

When people get angry at God, or with the idea of God it is often because He’s laid out some game-changers for our conduct. Most who resist the God of Scripture have heard about Him, but not studied His word. It’s up to Christians to be the closest thing to the Bible the world may see – and we aren’t always so great at doing this.  But, perhaps the warning in the Wall Street Journal piece mentioned above can apply to us?  

Truly smart technologies will remind us that we are not mere automatons who assist big data in asking and answering questions. Unless designers of smart technologies take stock of the complexity and richness of the lived human experience—with its gaps, challenges and conflicts—their inventions will be destined for the SmartBin of history.

Unless we see the humanity in those with whom we differ, and until we learn to speak the language, and feel the pain, of this generation, we may be like I was: hearing a buzz, feeling the tremble, being terrified I could be harmed in the encounter – but not having a clue how to be useful.  

Image Source 

Amending the Constitution - and Myself

Were you surprised that Congress made a last minute “rescue” of the US economy from the so-called fiscal cliff? 

The last minute rescue added to the debt we owe, without changing anyone’s expectations of what the government will do for them. What was rescued was the politicians!   These legislators and the President and Vice-President have jobs and secure pensions and health care most of us do not have.  So, an e-mail forward I received recently made sense.

Proposed  28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: "Congress shall make  no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not  apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress  shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives  that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States ."  

Whichever side we rooted for, neither side protecting us from the “fiscal cliff” ever had the courage to get real on all the government promises in which we have encouraged Americans to trust.  These legislators struck a deal negotiated behind closed doors after years of failing to legislate. It appears the majority of them struck a deal primarily to save their own skin!

Because neither the politicians nor the media pundits could or would put in plain words the implications of what we owe nationally and personally, we may be forgiven for thinking we now have a bit of breathing space in an oxygen-depleting economy. 

Have we?

I don’t know – but I think the late “rescue” surely means most of us will be paying more to live in the United States of America, under more regulations, local, state and federal.  One explanation of the rescue I heard this morning on HNL television said: Americans will have 2% less in their paychecks.  

Maybe if the incoming 113^th Congress will finally give us a budget, from which we can discern the government’s goals and objectives, we can hazard an informed guess about our financial future.  

Here  are two troubling bits of information that point in a scary direction. Take a deep breath before reading them:

·      Credit Card Debt Increasing   

·      Bloomberg: TAXES Increase on 77% of Americans   

My humble advice: Keep watching C-SPAN television! More important, consider accepting the invitation God offers through His prophet, Isaiah:

“Come, all you who are thirsty,
    come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
    and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
    and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
    listen, that you may live.

(Isaiah 55 )