We are broken!

Since the political barrage of ads and the election is behind us, I thought I might reflect on something political…or not! There is a reason why political systems fail…though they may have perfect logic behind them. People aren’t perfect!!

The Republican philosophy of resourcing the wealthy because they understand how to invest money and grow the economy by creating jobs etc. sounds great except for one thing. Many of those rich people lack the character to do so. We only need to look at the character failures of some of those people in the last 5 years to see that.

The Democratic idea that giving money to the poor will better their living standard falls to the same reality. When people get extra “free” money they tend to waste it on things that they have wanted but couldn’t afford…not on things that they actually need…that would better their life. Once again, a lack a character could be to blame.

There are two things I know for sure. I am generalizing and I am speaking of myself in all of this. We all show a lack of character in one way or another. For some it is “cheating” on their taxes while for others it is keeping the extra amount an insurance company pays for a loss though it exceeds the repair. We could also mention the charges for some of that repair elevated because the repairer knows how much the insurance company will pay. We have ways to justify our lack of character, of course. In short, though, it boils down to brokenness.

We are broken and we have been since the beginning. All human systems fail because all humans are “failures.” Not trying to be fatalistic here, just realistic. We all desperately need grace from God and others. We all desperately need to give grace to all.

If we, in the family of God, would be the ones to actually set ourselves aside and be the grace givers…beginning in our own families and our own churches...to all others, friends and “enemies” alike, we would turn the world on its head. This is mimicking Jesus; who gave it all up so that his “enemies” might have the opportunity to be restored, remade into his image…unbroken.

Grace to you.