ALARMING PERSPECTIVE OF OUR NATION’S PEOPLE…
Michael Medved recently wrote an unnerving perspective in USA TODAY. Titled “The Best of Times, the Worst of Times” medved points out that recent polls show that our populace gives a 78% disapproval rating to Congress and 68% believe we are headed in the wrong direction nationally. Yet a Harris poll shows that an amazing 94% say they are satisfied with their personal life. What a disconnect!
But then that perfectly describes our compartmentalized society. Put everything in neatly hermetically sealed compartments…keep life detached…and be more focused on what is happening to us personally than concerned about the corporate whole. Medved sums it up
by declaring…
“In other words, Americans seem to embrac the odd conviction that each of us dwells
upon some sun-kissed, optimistic island of happiness and advancement, while the rest
of the counrty marches dramatically toward catastrophe and collapse.”
This is nothing new. In the Old Testament God’s people were constantly dealt with on an individual basis but in view of what it would mean to the corporate whole. An example was that each follower of Christ was called and gifted by God, but in view of what that would contribute to the corporate whole. A perfect example is Bezalel in Exodus 31 whose God-given gifts were to be used in the making of a place of worship for the benefit of the whole. The individual was a key part of the corporate whole and not to be separate and compartmentalized.
Medved points out that this compartmentilization extends to our view of institutions close to us (local government) and those removed from us (federal government). We have much higher confidence in the former than in the later. The same with small business close to us compared with big corporations headquarted a distance from us.
So we would do well to focus on good news, rather than what’s wrong with everything. Remind ourselves that we aren’t isolated islands, but interconnected individuals who need each other, and whose lives are amazingly intwined. And we can’t neatly separate and compartmentalize life. It’s all integrated. Just like God meant it to be.