Point To Ponder: Living With The "Dirt"
By Sharon Hughes (10/05/04)
We have very light beige carpets in our home and every spot shows. So after the carpets are vacuumed, we get out our handy "spot remover" to take care of any spots that remain. It got me thinking this week of other carpets I have seen that, well, haven't received the "spot remover" treatment...and how easy it is to live with the spots. You just get use to seeing them, like you do the dings in your car or the weeds in your lawn, or worse.
There are a couple of obvious applications here. One has to do with our personal lives - how we don't take care of the spots in our thinking, attitudes, heart. Anger, lies, unforgiveness spots et al. We can get use to living with them, and pretty soon not even care that they are there. The longer they're there, however, the harder they are to remove. Some day we'll just get "new carpets."
The other application has to do with the state of nations, and specifically, our nation. America's carpet is definitely spotted. Several places are just plain dirty. Some members of this "house" don't notice the spots. Some don't care that the spots are there, the looser, live-and-let-live types. Others sit around and think or talk about how they need to be removed. And some are so blind to the spots they ask "is" there a spot? Then there are those who see the spots and try to remove them. It can be a monumental job to not only clean the carpets, but to stay on top of all the new spots.
Our government in this analogy is like parents who set up the "house rules" that everyone must abide by, with consequences for those who don't. But the "parents" can be persuaded by the latest "how-to" experts who, like Dr. Spock of years ago, advocate throwing away the rules and letting the "children", or even the neighbor's children, decide whether the spots are "okay" or not to live with. Or whether abiding by the "rules" or not determines character.
I just interviewed John O'Neill, author of "Unfit for Command", of the Swift Boat Vets for Truth. I asked him some hard questions, including, "What would you say to those who say YOU are the ones lying?" I think everyone needs to hear what he said. The show airs on Friday 10/8.
Friends, we have to have our eyes wide open. We have to call a spot a spot. We all live in this "house" together, and it will be interesting to see what the upcoming election reveals about us.
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