America the Camel
Last week when my wife Dana and I were returning home from some errands, she made a remarkable statement, as illustrated in the picture above. It was a statement that was humorously terrifying. She said, “Jesus is going to push the camel through the eye of the needle, and we (Americans) are the camel.” The imagery was so graphic and so personal to me because it is. Truth be known, we do not see our covetousness-driven consumerism as all that dangerous. We do not not see how deep the mire seeps into the recesses of our hearts that Jesus wants reserved for Him alone. Truthfully, we do not see our state of soul-danger as serious as Jesus does. We do not see how the allure of silver bells at the holidays drowns us in many foolish and harmful lusts (1 Tim. 6:9-10). Equally so, we too often view Jesus’ own statement on riches as too extreme, that they are deceitful and choke His word from taking root and bearing fruit in our hearts (Matt 13:22; Mk 4:19). Jesus is going to help us in these times and cause us to feed upon that which truly satisfies, Him alone (Ps. 34:8).
I suspect that the general populous in our nation will begin to awake to reality in the Spring of 2009 (March or April) as to the real economic crisis our nation finds itself, far worse in many ways, than the Great Depression. What is currently clear to the policitcal, economic, and business leaders worldwide, will finally begin to trickle down to the masses. This will result in an oversimplistic distrust and acusation towards ‘leadership,’ some of which is legitimate. Additionally, there will be a very unsettledness verging on chaotic fear of the future as the IV of of greed begins to be removed from our lives. May our eyes be opened to our real sickness that has been masked by the medication of our lusts that we would fall upon the Rock and find our treasure, portion, delight, and joy in Him alone (James 5:3; Col. 2:3; John 15:11).


