Thursday, April 2, 2009

Another Spiritual thought

So today, I was listening to Sean Hannity for a little bit, and I don't know what he was doing, but he had called a guy who didn't know what his show was, and was asking the guy questions and ended up trying to prove that the guy was a Marxist, and then, I assume prove him wrong. That got me thinking about extremes in political ideologies. According to modern definitions in political parlance, a conservative is someone who believes that the government should stay out of my business and keep away the terrorists, and a liberal believes that the government has a responsibility to ensure everyone's well-being. They seem to be opposite points of view.
In church, we are taught to prepare for disasters and be self-sufficient, and to take care of the poor. Another case of seemingly different viewpoints. Why would God ask us to really work hard on taking care of ourselves, and then just give away some of our well earned stuff to people who don't have jobs?
Because God loves all His children, and because he wants us to learn how to use our judgment. He instills in us a sense of hard work and a sense of accomplishment for taking care of our families and relying on our own efforts. But he also commands us to give to the poor, because He knows that when you are fighting to find food to feed your kids for the day, and can't think straight because you yourself haven't eaten in a while, then its pretty hard to think about anything else. So make someone else's day a little easier, donate to the food bank. (And give food that you yourself would enjoy eating. Its obvious that most of the food there is from the reject bin.) Even when you meet homeless people on the street, use your judgment for each situation. You don't always have to just say no and keep walking, like I do, you can look at the situation and decide if they really so just need a little relief until they can improve their situation. (My beautiful wife does this.)
In conclusion, the higher law of the gospel recognizes that there are more than just 2 ways of looking at the world, and that we, as humans, need to use our judgment for the greater good.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dave,
I am enjoying reading your blog. I especially have enjoyed the poem you have posted, "The Set of the Sails". I have shared it with a few people. I hope you enjoy conf. this weekend. I look forward to it as well.
- Aunt Holly