From today’s reading...
In making this distinction among yourselves have you not used a corrupt standard? Listen, my dear brothers: it was those who were poor according to the world that God chose, to be rich in faith and to be the heirs to the kingdom which he promised to those who love him.” James 2:4-5
Looks like corrupt standards have been a thing since before Tricky Dick proclaimed to the world, “I’m not a crook!” and Slick Willy blithely stated, “It depends upon what the meaning of the word is, is.”
But those were individual, albeit influential, men trying to save their skins when the corruptness of their standards was exposed for all the world to see.
Today, we have just a handful of corporations worth trillions of dollars not only promoting—even encouraging and celebrating—these corrupt standards, they are also actively seeking and silencing those who try to call them out for what they are: corrupt, manipulative, and evil.
A billionaire in a private jet calling something evil good as his brainless sycophants surround him doesn’t make it so.
He’s just a liar in a comfortable setting.
Similarly, just because a popular politician sits in a hospital bed for a photo op with his “husband” and their adopted children doesn’t mean a child isn’t better off with both a mother and a father in the home.
I would say our standards today have become corrupted, but that would mean we have standards.
Today it seems all the kool kids are taking this laissez-faire attitude toward anything and everything, that is, as long as it’s not traditional, proven, and effective, i.e., Judeo-Christian principles, self-control, discipline, and taking personal responsibility.
If you fall into that latter camp, all bets are off.
Those billionaires with their jets, politicians in their back pockets, and monolithic technology companies are more than happy to bring all their power to bear to wipe you off the face of the internet, at a minimum, and maybe even the face of the earth, if they can.
And some can. But I digress.
The point is, there is nothing new under the sun.
The times, they aren’t a-changin’.
Today is not “so much worse than it was back in the day.”
Evil and corruption and pride and sloth and gluttony and jealousy and all of the sins have been with us since the beginning of time, and God is fully aware of it.
His mind, His heart, and His eyes are on you.
Follow His example and keep your mind, heart, and eyes on Him.
Ignore the posturing and the peacocking, the clanging gongs, the smoking bongs, and the bellowing of the wrongs.
Keep the one thing, the One, and the things He wants you to do, which is simply to...
Stay the course.
Keep the faith.
Endure.
Now go sell something.
