The Whistling Vicuna

    In the face of decline it is hard to stay cheerful. My personal work situation is better than most, I believe. I have Part-time work in the early a.m. that is steady and stays steady during times of economic stress, and I have my self employment that keeps me busy, also.  A real estate rental and lots of busy-ness at home fill in the other hours in my day, and a recent political bent will soon be keeping me hopping with campaigning for a seat on the Peoria, AZ City Council.

    It’s in the talking with the people I know that a decided air of dissatisfaction begins to emerge. One fellow has his job in jeopardy because of a gambling owner/boss. A woman I know has her job and, indeed, the company she works for threatened by recent massive cuts in Medicare/Medicaid funding and she expects deeper cuts soon. Churches, existing on tithes and offerings, are facing closure and dissolution as members lose jobs and income and/or move away to look for work. States and cities face monetary bankruptcy. There seems to be no help to be had.

    I am a Christian and an American. The things I say may seem simplistic but I believe these things to be true. Read your bible, the King James Authorized Bible in particular. Read the Declaration of Independence. Read the Constitution of the United States. Read them with the same simplicity with which they were written. They were written to be understood by the people, the common people. There really is nothing too esoteric or too mysterious to be understood. They are the Basics, the Roots, and the Beginning of Wisdom. They are inspiring.

    Human beings have a marked tendency to withdraw in the face of adversity, to hunker down and cease striving. It is in the striving, though, that we grow, indeed, that we live. The challenges of life give us impetus to strive even more. Reading of the challenges of others and how they overcame them gives us the knowledge that we, too, can overcome the challenges in our lives. That is not to say that we will be successful in the way that the world defines, not at all. I am speaking of being cheerful, of having joy – in the LORD, and in the knowing and the doing that which is right.

    Get involved in your life. Find out those things that are detrimental to your self and stop them, change them. Get counseling if needed, and find wise council. Find or read of people you admire, learn their histories, find things in their lives that you can apply to yours, and grow. Seek the LORD, He will be found. Seek His wisdom, He is liberal to supply. Go stand on your front porch and imagine.