As the protests and revolutions have stormed across the globe from Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya to Wisconsin and New Jersey, a repeated question has been banging at the back of my brain. "So, if not that, what?" When Hosni Mubarak resigned, I wondered, "So, now what? What do you want instead?" When the protesters occupied the Wisconsin capitol building, they clearly didn't want cuts. I wondered, "So, what do you recommend?" And "Leave us without cuts" isn't an answer because the problem isn't them; the problem is that the state needs to cut somewhere. "Leave us without cuts" doesn't answer the problem. It is the case so often, actually. "We don't like this!" is cried from all directions, but "Here's what we recommend to solve the problem" is rarely heard.
A very common complaint today is our government. We don't like the president or we don't like his opposition or we don't like the liberals or we don't like the conservatives. A lot of people are more general -- "We don't like our government at all." We don't like what's going on or not going on with health care, what's happening or not happening with job growth, what's being spent or not being spent on this program or that. We just don't like it. We certainly don't like a $14 trillion deficit. Now that something on which all sides agree. "We don't like this!" And I want to know, "So, what do you recommend?"
I ask because I don't have any suggestions. You see, lots of people think, "If we can just vote 'our folks' in there, then it will get fixed." I don't share their optimism. I don't think there is a particular set of "right people" who could accomplish such a task. I don't think the fix is in the government, so a better government won't help.
Years ago I had the pleasure of having a guy from China live with us for several months. In a conversation with others once, someone asked him if he was a Communist. "No!" he said quite emphatically. "Why would you think that?" "Well," the questioner responded, "China is a Communist country." "Oh," he answered, "we didn't put the government there." And I got it. You see, we put the government there; the Chinese people did not. That is, if you want to know what Americans are like in general, you can simply observe their government because their government reflects the people. And that is where, in my humble opinion, the problem lies.
We're facing lots of tough problems. People suffer from lack of health care, jobs, food, adequate housing ... lots of things. In Arizona the state is out of money and needs to cut people from the Medicare program to survive. "No!" we cry compassionately. But that doesn't solve the problem of "out of money". "Borrow the money" simply puts off the inevitable. "Take it from the rich" simply creates a new money problem. "Find it somewhere else" would simply mean firing teachers or closing schools or eliminating road maintenance or cutting back fire and police or a host of other cuts that we're equally unwilling to take. You see, the problem ... is us. We've decided that the State is required to be our caretaker. Right alongside that, we've decided that life should be much better than it is. Bad stuff isn't supposed to happen. And that's where the State is supposed to come in and solve the problems. It doesn't have that capacity.
There was a time in this country when no such belief existed. The "needy" were cared for by family. If they had no family, then the church would step in. (You know, "widows indeed" (1 Tim 5:16) -- that sort of thing.) We've moved on, grown up, "progressed", gotten better. Now we're independent ("I don't want anyone to interfere in my life") and demanding "equality" (without even knowing anymore what that means). "Nuclear family? Are you kidding? That's crazy!" So we have built up a list of demands without any means of meeting those demands and can't figure out why the Democrats or the Republicans (depending on who is in power at the time) can't meet them. There is no fix for this.
What is needed is not better government. What is needed is not even more money, a better economy, bringing down "big government" or "corporate greed", or taking from the rich to give to the poor. What is needed is changed hearts. No politician has that capability. I won't be putting my hope in a better outcome next election. I don't see the answer there. I do know the One with the answer to that problem. I'll put my hope in Him.
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