August 30, 2017

Mandatory

As I watch TV coverage of the flooding in Texas I’m stymied by those who are given a mandatory evacuation notice, yet before making a decision on whether or not to leave they consider their own evaluation, or they ask for prayer on their decision. While I understand petitioning the Lord for direction, the word mandatory seems pretty self-explanatory to me. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV).

3 comments:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----I haven’t been paying much attention to this hurricane. Hurricanes are all the same. They tear apart people's homes; they flood what they don’t tear apart; and they return the land to its natural state. That’s almost as hard to take as every news outlet in the nation aggrandizing themselves with wall to wall, thick, carpet coverage of 'em. I saw a news clip last night, or the night before, I can’t remember. This poor reporter had not picked the best of locations to report. Those horrible flood waters were only thigh high at most, and pretty calmly flowing. His choice of video feed was between a man in a flooded intersection fiddling around the outside of his car, or an overturned dumpster in the middle of the street. I lost count of how many times the camera played on tha ravaged, overturned dumpster. And I have no idea what the reporter was saying.
-----So I don’t know who issued this evacuation notice. Nor do I know who refused to issue an evacuation notice before the hurricane rolled into Houston. I think it was the Governor. But I won’t swear to that. For the common citizen, it really doesn’t matter. Governments are like hurricanes, you’ve seen one towing everyone’s response and you’ve seen 'em all. So, I can understand what people thought of the mandatory evacuation notice, “Before this thing hit they insisted we stay home and ride it out. Now that it’s over, they say ‘Flee for your lives from the aftermath!’ Lord, help us to know what to do.” I guess that’s a reasonable prayer.
-----What once made America exceptional was its strength by individual freedom. Freedom was mandatory; government was handcuffed. We weren’t to be herded around by government like a bunch of bleating, stupid, calves. But we were to be free to make our own decisions and suffer our own consequences, either learning from them or dying out of the mix. Cowpunching government is not what a flock of individually free sheep need. Sheep need a morally upright, strong shepherd of fine integrity to follow because he is good, which sheep know they need -good. Cowpokes do not have to be good in any way other than in punching cows. Before the twentieth century of fascistic rebellion, America grew up on shepherds. Yet America played into fascism with the rest of the Western World; consider honestly the substructure of government overreach T. Roosevelt, W. Wilson, FDR, LBJ, and Peanut Man built into place for Clinton and Obama to use in herding America away from its exceptionalism.
-----”Stay put!” “Leave your stuff and run!” “Ride it out!” “Stay put!” “Don’t try to understand ‘em, just rope and throw and brand ‘em. Soon we‘ll be living far and wide…Move ‘em on! head ‘em up! Head ‘em up, move ‘em on! Move ‘em on, head ‘em up, Rawhide! Cut ‘em out! Ride ‘em in! Ride ‘em in, let ‘em out! Cut ‘em out, ride ‘em in, Rawhiiiiiiddddde.”
-----I think I can understand ‘em.

Love you all,
Steve Corey

Christian Ear said...

Thanks Steve. Now that song will be stuck in my head all day!
Gail

Steve Corey said...

Today Mark Stein sits in for Rush Limbaugh because…the Governor of Florida has ordered all Florida businesses to close for the weekend, shutting off all options available to the massive collection of intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, confusion, stupidity, foolishness scattered amongst millions of individual minds so that they will all be herded about by the outstanding brilliance of a very small few, or run over a cliff by the stupidity of the same.
”Stay put!” “Leave your stuff and run!” “Ride it out!” “Stay put!” “Don’t try to understand ‘em, just rope and throw and brand ‘em. Soon we‘ll be living far and wide…Move ‘em on! head ‘em up! Head ‘em up, move ‘em on! Move ‘em on, head ‘em up, Rawhide! Cut ‘em out! Ride ‘em in! Ride ‘em in, let ‘em out! Cut ‘em out, ride ‘em in, Rawhiiiiiiddddde.”