A Spiritual Crisis Perhaps?

Recently the nation went through the great debt limit debate. It was partisan and politically charged and angered the average person. Eventually the debt limit was raised with a bill that no one really like a great deal and everyone said was the best compromise possible. One can say there were winners and losers, but even the winners essentially have to deal with the fact that this was, at best, a Pyrrhic victory.

Let’s put the politics aside on this one, however, and look at something else. Is this perhaps a symptom of a spiritual crisis?

People are willing for there to be changes to Social Security, as long as those changes do not effect them.

People are willing for there to be cuts in Medicare, as long as those changes don’t effect them.

People are willing for taxes to be raised----on other people.

People are willing to cut Medicare for the poor until they learn that Medicare covers Mom in the nursing home and then they don’t want it to be cut any longer.

Entitlements, however they come to us, in terms of benefits from the government or tax loopholes exist and the people who receive them want them. Paying for them, however, is a whole different story.

Before we blame our politicians, however, we need to look at ourselves. Those in office attempt, it would seem, to do the will of the people. They all spoke about speaking to the American people, and listening to those people, and those people told them to do what they are doing. I suspect this to be true.

Our society has become a society of lust and desire and want, and I’m not talking in terms of sexuality. We lust, we desire, and we want for more.

Houses are bigger and more expensive than ever before. Many of them are empty because people over bought.

We want really nice, very fancy cars that cost more money than houses used to cost.

We go to restaurants and eat monstrous sized portions of food. It is not unusual for people to go through the drive through and have, in their bag, a pound of beef, a lot of cheese, a great deal of bread, a half pound of fries, and a quart of soda. It is called ‘lunch.’ And who really needs that much?

We have the latest computers, the latest versions of Windows, Ipods, Ipads, smart phones, 900 cable channels and high speed Internet. We are connected to everyone in the world 24/7. Televisions can be purchased that are the same size as the screen in a small theater with a resolution so great that we can see a zit on an actor from 30 feet away.

And I write all of this and profess my own guilt. In grappling with my own weight issues, what I know call ‘lunch’ has changed and, to be honest, I miss what I used to call ‘lunch.’ I love the technology and indulge myself in it. My home is nice, but modest by today’s standards and I drive an older car. But I’m as guilty as anyone in my consumption of stuff.

In recent years even much of Christianity has changed. Christianity is based on love and sacrifice. Now, it is easy to find churches that preach a Gospel of prosperity. If you have faith, God will bless you with riches... Several years ago a prayer uttered by Jabez, a very obscure character in the Bible to say the least, became a prayer of profit rather than opening one’s heart.

We desire much for ourselves. We believe we are entitled to it for whatever reason. We want what we want; we just really don’t want to pay for it. We lust for it all, but have little desire to sacrifice.

We can lament we have a political crisis. At its core, however, I think we are really facing a spiritual crisis. We are a culture that wants it all at no cost, no price to ourselves. We can blame others all we want. Perhaps it is time to look in our own mirrors to discover the problem.