Things Could Be Worse

What a surprise to wake up the other morning to the sounds of thunder and falling rain. It actually felt great to feel raindrops on my head as I walked from the house to the car on my way to coffee. Most of the area reported receiving one and one half to two and one quarter inches of rain which lowers our deficit to fourteen inches for the year. But, who’s complaining. I mean, we’re not on fire nor are we under water, so compared to the rest of the country, we’re in pretty good shape, don’t you think? Come on, stop complaining and crying about no fireworks sales or displays this year for our country’s 235th birthday. And we’re not alone. Most of the State of Texas won’t be having any fireworks displays this year. There’ll be more 4th of July’s and maybe next year the show will be twice as big. I guess we’ll have to settle for watching someone else’s fireworks on the television. Once again, remember, things could be worse.
While walking down the street one day a US senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance. “Welcome to heaven”, says Peter. “Before you settle in, it seems there’s a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we’re not sure what to do with you.” “No problem, just let me in”, says the senator. “Well, I’d like to”, says Peter, “but I have orders from higher up. What we’ll do is have you spend one day in hell and one day in heaven. Then you can chose where you want to spend eternity.” And with that, Peter escorts the senator to an elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance he can see a clubhouse with all his friends and other politicians he had worked with. Everyone is happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a round of golf and have a big extravagant dinner. The devil was there, a real friendly guy who was dancing and telling funny stories. Time was up and everyone gives him a hearty farewell. The elevator goes up, up, up to heaven. There he spends a day hanging out with a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and before he knows it, time is up. Peter meets with the senator. “Well what will it be senator, heaven or hell?” The senator decided he liked hell much better, so Peter puts him in the elevator. Down, down, down he goes to hell. The doors open and he’s in a barren land covered with garbage. He sees his friends, dressed in rags, picking up trash and putting it into black bags. The devil greets him whereupon he protests about the change, “What has happened between yesterday and today?” The devil looks at him, smiles and says, “Yesterday we were campaigning. Today you voted.” Are you ready for campaign 2012?
[Psalm 33] “…From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth …No king is saved by the size of his army …But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those who hope on his unfailing love …” No matter how big and strong this country becomes, if our politics and politicians don’t get right with God, soon, this country is going to run out of birthdays. Don’t, for a moment, think we can ever be stronger than the God who made US, for he can also destroy US whenever he finally gets tired of our disobedience.