Writing from the midwest this day, a funny development occurred. It snowed.
It wasn’t just a little snow. It was big… perhaps not “big” to those living in the mountainous East or West, but here in the heart of America, it was big. “Big” equates to enough to make life stop (… and to impose upon many the dreaded fear of running out of a gallon of 2% milk). Yet contrary to popular belief, life stopping is good.
I know, I know. I hear you…
Do you not realize the plans this all messed up?
I have things to do — important things!
I’m frustrated… bored. I can’t do what I need to do!
Exactly. Important things. Stuff we need to do.
I wonder sometimes, no less, if what we claim to be important is really, truly, somehow lesser… if we prioritize items and issues and activities that are lesser in value and wisdom than reality — than things of greater value — than things, so-to-speak, of a more enduring “bottom line.” An insightful friend of mine, who has bravely initiated a ministry designed to generously pour respect into the lives of men and women, often says, “We have to keep what’s most important most important.” But yet we don’t. Society doesn’t. We often get off track…
… in our homes… in our hearts… in Washington… and in the world.
In Washington many of those who contributed to the decades-old pattern of financial fragility are currently seeking to solve it. But to solve it, they would have to collectively, fairly-permanently agree to spend less money than they take in. In other words, with a national debt of over $16 trillion, reducing the debt by $2 trillion over 10 years — one of the current options on the table — will make little dent in the debt. It doesn’t solve the problem. Solving the problem is what’s most important — not adhering to lobbyist groups that simply attempt to shout loudest for their special, special interest.
Friends, hear me on this, please. With all due respect, congressmen from both parties and the President each have those special interests in the back of their minds; they have issues and entitlements which they have individually — and often partisanly — prioritized. As long as those interests maintain an entitled grip on a politician’s motivation, the politicians collectively will not solve the fiscal problem. If they do not solve the problem, they are not keeping what’s most important most important. And dare I suggest… if they are not keeping what’s most important most important, they are not serving — at least the entire country — well.
It’s hard, however, to cast stones upon Washington when we maintain similar struggles in our own homes. In fact, at Christmas, especially, many of us also have prioritized things of lesser importance… like…
… presents over people…
… things over relationships…
… materialism over the meaning of the day…
We all do it. We all struggle with keeping what’s most important most important. And it matters not how brilliant nor intelligent nor worldly or wealthy we are; the struggle remains real.
And so sometimes, perhaps, in order to make us slow down — to make us pause and reflect upon what means most — we are given opportunity — if we are humble enough to actually “get it” — to re-prioritize what’s most important. Hence, sometimes, life stops.
Sometimes it even snows.
Respectfully,
AR