As you watch the news lately, you will probably hear more about healthcare reform than any other thing. Obviously it is a subject matter that is not going away any time soon. On just about every news channel, you will hear from a "panel" of experts pontificating their opinions and "wisdom" on how to tackle the problem. Their pragmatic approach may seem like the most reasonable response to such a crisis, however all of these "experts" have failed to see a more systemic problem that is
invisible, yet is just as insidious as cancer, and that is greed in man's heart. It is a spiritual problem.
It seems more and more people are becoming self-centered and shallow........lacking in the most basic of human needs and that is compassion. Everywhere you go, just about everyone is nickle and diming you. Banks do it, the government does it. Even the insurance companies do it. Hospitals do it, as do dentists and healthcare facilities. It's greed and it has a terrible stench. As a healthcare worker and a Christian, I have witnessed some of the most unkind and shallow people everywhere. From hospitals to nursing homes to supermarkets to the highway and yes, even many churches. Part of the problem is that this country is SPOILED. We are a bunch of greedy, spoiled, shallow people with not much depth. Just witnessing people watching soap operas and Jerry Springer, and self absorbed facebook, and myspace users, is it any wonder why people are lacking in basic quality traits such as compassion, kindness, and sensitivity to other people and their lot in life.
When I can see first hand in a church of all places that people lack a basic compassion for their fellow human being who needs to be loved despite their weakness and infirmity, I get depressed and saddened in my heart. A church of all places is where people need to loved and accepted but if you find that a homeless man who has a terrible stench because he hasn't showered in several weeks or months is not only looked upon in disdain but is basically treated like a leper, than clearly there is something dreadfully wrong with people's hearts. If the only thing people care about is self-promotion, self-deification, and making sure they always portray the outward appearance of success, which can only mean to them the outward shell, so that others will look favorable upon them, than obviously they have stooped to a level so low that they will have little hope of developing character and substance. Maybe a FORCED entry into the "furnace" might bring about proven character.
The pretense and dissimilation is blatant. It is only until people have been stripped of their pretension and shallowness, (perhaps through a forced "furnace"), will they have any desire to become more human and real. The qualities of compassion and kindness and love may actually begin to take root in their souls and grow. And even unbelievers are capable of that because God gave every man and woman a moral conscience and it is only when human beings start behaving like human beings capable of compassion and love, will this world become an enjoyable place. Until then, it's like living in Hollywood where shallowness and pretension rule or Nazi Germany under the Third Reich which glorified a malicious contempt for human life.
Money, power, fame, beauty and success do not last forever, but you soul does and qualities like compassion, kindness and love will last for ALL eternity. If people will take the time to cultivate compassion and love in their souls, they might actually grow and mature as a human being. Frankly if you do not have these qualities, then you are a waste of a human life and bring nothing but destruction and hurt to those around you.
In the days before the flood in the book of Genesis, God looked on the heart of man and saw NOT ONE good intention and He repented that he even created man............"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth"..............vs. 5-13.
Judgment from God will come........it is only a matter of time!