France recently raised the retirement age for public benefits from 60-62. Everyone is up in arms. France has had miserly job growth for years now in the private sector. Unemployment has mostly been in the 10% range.
Does anyone see that is where we are headed in the US? Government stimulating itself with wasteful spending and getting in the way of private sector growth.
Health Care reform has already had significant consequences and clearly the worst is yet to come. First it started with premiums on many health plans going up in the 16-20% range because of the downstream costs associated with many of the provisions of health care. Then there was the stupidity of the component of the reform where a minimum of 80% of premiums must be spent on health care coverage. In what market and industry does government dictate what margins must be made in a free market? The consequences of this was McDonalds threatening to drop their coverage on their “mini-med” plans. Our benevolent government responded with a waiver. There is already a lot of haggling over what constitutes “health care coverage”.
According to a report released by Senators Coburn and Barrasso, millions will face losing the plans they now enjoy “as employers either drop coverage or purchase more expensive, government-dictated health insurance.”
Every time government gets involved like this, there are unintended consequences. That is precisely what will happen and has happened with health care reform.
With all of the feel-good of the miner rescue, some have particularly noted that it is a wonderful testimonial of capitalism. The president of Chile solicited the best of innovation to get these miners rescued. Consider this:
Note no communistic countries represented. China had no representation. Not because they didn’t want to, but because they had no capability. Had this happened in Venezuela, we would have had a lot of dead miners.
Debsue and I attended today the 75th anniversary of Little Church in the Vale (LCITV). LCITV was the first church I attended as a member after I accepted Christ my senior year of college in 1981. LCITV was also special because Dean Brdlik was the pastor and his wife Jane introduced me to Debsue. We attended LCITV as a couple from 1985 to 1994.
When I first went there as a single male, I was the only one under 30 and I don’t think I ever ate a Sunday meal at home by myself for at least a year. They embraced me and made me feel so welcome. I was discipled by the mature men in the church such as Dean, but also Bill Banfield, Bill and Bob Bennett, and others. Dean was a much more detailed pastor back then and my first year there, we spent a whole year in Romans 1.
Bill and Bob Bennett have both passed away into the presence of the Lord, but Bill Banfield was there and while a little older and a little more frail, still led singing with the typical Banfield gusto. Mary Beth Bennett, Bill’s wife also passed away into the presence of the Lord just yesterday.
While it has been 16 years since we had last been at LCITV, it was so neat to see those that we were so close to. Our leaving LCITV in 1994 wasn’t the best of situations especially since I was then an elder at the time. However, time and the bond of Christ healed whatever wounds might have been there. We hugged as our hearts were knit together. As we age and our friends move on ahead of us into the presence of the King, I am so glad that we will all be reunited with Christ for all eterninty.
“I believed therefore I said, I am greatly afflicted.” And in my dismay I said, “All men are liars.”
Psalm 116:10-11
All men are unreliable. Anyone who denies this is simply denying the truth. The Psalmist sees his own unreliability. There are multiple ways one can respond to this realization. One, they can deny it and not take responsibility. I just saw an Eminem interview where when questioned about his lyrics and his responsibility as a role model, he shifted responsibility for his conduct to parents. Second, they can just make excuses and say, “well that is just the way I am”. Third is to acknowledge responsibility, but shift the burden for change to the Lord. I fully subscribe to the overflow principle. I am so sold out to relationship with the living Lord because I have seen how that relationship first changes everything else (not that I live it completely out yet, but I realize the truth of it). I know that God is in the presence of changing things in my life that I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am powerless to change. If I had gritted my teeth and tried to change myself, it will not change. Verse 12 of this same Psalm says “How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?” The key to reliability is relationship.
The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and he delights in his way; when he falls, he shall not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the one who holds his head. Psalm 37:23-24
I have never been bungee jumping in my life. Never had much desire to although I have been told the rush is something. Our daughter Meghan went bungee jumping over Lake Victoria when she did her overseas studies in Uganda. The premise of bungee jumping as you know is to free fall down relying on the fact that the rope is a) strong enough to snap you back before you hit the ground and b) shorter in length than the jumping distance. Both of those facts have to be in place. It is not an “or” condition. It seems to me you are putting a lot of trust in these conditions. Oh to be young.
God establishes our steps. He delights in them. He calls us out to obedience and shows us the way one little bit at a time. He never shows us too much of the future or it would freak us out. He shows us just enough to gain dependence and trust on him. When we are content, when we are self-reliant, we can expect a believer to be “snapped back” to where God wants us.
However, the believer is not hurled headlong into oblivion. That is what the psalm says. Just as we can’t go off our own way, when we fall (and note it is when because we all fall), we won’t go careening out of control. We have a God who holds our head, who keeps us in his sight. He gently disciplines us, nurtures us back to trust in him. Note the Lord holds our head because that would be the first thing to get smashed when we are hurled headlong in our bungee jumping of life. I have felt out of control many times in my life careening aimlessly only to have a loving God discipline me back to a relationship. So as I bungee jump through life, he is there to keep me from smashing my head into the ground below.
The California lawmakers is three months late in passing a budget (after giving six months to pass) which now again may result in I.O.U.’s. But don’t fret, they were busy.
