Peace and Prosperity?

We live in a time when our world is increasing turmoil. People cry out for someone to lead and to be the one who can bring peace and prosperity to mankind.  The problem is that we rely on people to accomplish that.  There is only one source of real peace in the universe.

Leadership has often been bought with blood and bullets throughout history.  That still happens in parts of the world.  We only have to look to Egypt and Libya as prime recent examples, and who knows what will happen with Syria.  In our country, here in America, our leadership is bought with money.  Campaigns produce slick advertisements that rarely reflect the whole truth of their claims.  The hype rarely represents what a candidate truly stands for, and once in office the elected official is beholden to those he who bought and paid for him or her.  He must deliver what they expect, especially if he wants their funding for re-election.  In the extreme, we reach a point where the demands to be rewarded by those who elected a leader are so widespread that the benefits they receive bankrupt the society.  The true problem with democracy is that it only lasts until enough of the electorate figures out that they can vote themselves free stuff by buying leadership and voting in someone who will insure that money is taken away from those who have it and is given to those who don’t have it.  Pretty soon, society collapses economically.

We have no term limits on most of our elected officials, and they continue to be returned to leadership repeatedly.  It becomes a form of “kingship.”They become arrogant with their power and authority and abuse it.  Sometimes the system catches them and they fall from power as a result, but most often it goes unnoticed and unchallenged in America. I believe we are at a tipping point in our society.  We have lots of folks who want free stuff, and lots of politicians who want to remain in power.  It is a deadly combination.  Without more stringent term limits and campaign finance and advertising reform, I believe we are doomed. Simply put, I believe that history teaches us that no one can survive their own unchallenged authority.  That applies to a society as a whole, too. The test is coming for our western society. 

There is a lesson for this closer to home, too.  We deny that God is in charge.  I live in a very liberal and self-centered community whose inhabitants trust mostly in their wealth and “self-accomplished” sufficiency.  They live lives of self-indulgence, and by-and-large consider faith to be a mental aberrancy or an outright disease.  They are indicative of the trend in our western society as a whole.  They are the emperors of their universe.

My opinion is, if you want to get along well with God, don’t sit on his throne.  He is the authority who can't be challenged.  He is the only source of true peace in the universe.