I understand how sensitive this issue is for so many people, but do all these protesting folks consider what their protest looks like to the man or woman who hasn't been able to find employment for 12, 13, or even 24 months? That same man or woman who lost their car, lost their home, and lost their families because of the job situation in this country right now... do these union folks consider any of that?
How about those elected officials? Do those missing legislators consider the message they're actually sending to all of us? I'm sure they want us to assume that the lesson is a heroic one of how they were willing to leave happy home to avoid doing something difficult. Well - to bad for them because the real message looks more like this:
"When something difficult has to be done, the best thing to do is to run away and blame someone else for the problem."
See, the way Mason sees this, this story isn't a new one. The same story is told in the history of a people we call the Hebrews. There was this difficult thing they had to do when they finally got to the promised land - but instead of being willing to actually do it they complained, whined, and said they weren't going to. Does anyone remember to what happened to them?
Look, understand the plight that these folks feel they're in. I really do. The government mishandles all our tax money, spends itself into a huge hole, and then asks of US to take pay cuts so that we can get ourselves free from the debt-bondage that we're currently in. But guess what, it's gotta start somewhere! When you're family budget busts - you gotta start making tough choices. Can't afford all the bills, then you gotta start cutting things off. Lose the satellite TV, lose the Netflix, lose the (and this one would really hurt!) Internet.
Do I know all the details of this issue, no. And some might say that I shouldn't comment without all the facts, but come on... you think everyone in that photograph actually knows what they're really protesting? They're just repeating the process that someone has laid out for them. Maybe I am too - but it seems to me that, all too often, we're willing to be TOLD what to think about a subject without taking the time to think the actual issue through. This issue is a perfect example. Most people who know about this don't "know" - they just got internet-wise by checking CNN or Fox or whatever news website is the flavor of the moment. Just like me... but do we stop and look past the words to what's actually being said?
God doesn't want this for us, not for any of us. We were meant for so much more. We were meant to support each other, to have relationship with each other, and to show love above all things - yet we bicker and squabble over the scraps of the world and try to fill ourselves on the emptiness therein. Oh, that we would even attempt to live the way that the Bible calls us to live!! But no - we've looked into that promised land, we've even viewed the power of surrender through the eyes of Scripture... but we always say "no." We look at the difficulty of doing right and we say "No way - did you see how hard that looks!?" - and we hear others say the same thing. We think, since there's more people saying it, that we must be right and we encourage each other to be cowards and live a life less than what we were created for.
And God, the whole time, begs of us to look in His word and to see how this already played out in a desert near Egypt.
"I, the LORD, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die." (Numbers 14:35)
They saw the way, they turned away, and they died in the desert.
How I wish we wouldn't busy ourselves with repeating history, but changing the future. How I wish we would put down signs and recapture the hope that we could make things better, though that might be born on the back of hard work.
How I wish that we would dare to live the way Jesus taught us.
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