What Did the Debt Debate and Burn Notice Have in Common

"The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride and arrogancy and the evil way, and the froward mouth do I hate." Proverbs 8:13.

If you asked my husband, he'd probably say I obsessed over the Debt Debate. Each evening I would listen to the videos on my Fox News app, and just to give myself a balanced view, I listen to CNN videos.

The other night I was struck by how similar the rhetoric of the two sides were, even though their positions are cosmically different. Both blame the other side. Both point to the same facts and give their own interpretation, usually making a point of how the other side just doesn't get it.

If not for my hope in Christ, I'd be in a panic about the future of our economy.

Friday nights my husband and I watch Burn Notice. Inevitably I have to read for an hour or more afterward because I'm so stressed out (you'd think I'd learn to not bother watching the show). Why? Because I can't handle the drama of living out lies or deception. The characters all live in a world of deceit and must try to remember all the lies they've told in order to deceive another. Oy, it plays on one of my worst fears, that someone would consider me a liar and frame me for some crime that portrays me as a great deceiver.

Between the news and these shows I could turn into a lunatic (perhaps some people think I'm already there). Society today has no fear of the Lord, if we measure it by Proverbs 8:13. The norm in politics is to give half-truths in order to better position yourself in the eyes of the public. TV shows have the bad guys do good and the good guys (like the FBI or CIA) do bad. We've mixed things up so that most people are confused about what is right and what is wrong and out spews relativism.

But if we truly feared the Lord, then we'd have a clear picture of right and wrong. We'd not exalt the villains (like in Despicable Me...oy, I think we've watched that show 100 times since we got the DVD). We'd not consider lying or half-truths or falsehoods or partial truths as the norm, rather we'd demand that the men and women have integrity and speak truth. We'd demand it of the media who promote fear-mongering and feed on sensationalism.

When I turn off my iPad, I could easily drown in a sea of hopelessness for the future of our nation. Yet, I find instead myself praying for the hearts of men and women to turn to God, to surrender their pride, their positioning, their self-centered outlooks. Only when we humble ourselves before God, and accept His way (which includings not supporting evil works by making them legal) will we find the peace and freedom we long to have but seem to have lost sight of.