SURPRISE!

A real surprise for me is when I go to paint my face in the morning, pull the mirror up, and by mistake look into the magnifying side of the mirror. That jolt is a scary surprise, but these days it's getting harder and harder to really surprise anyone. People are urbane; nothing surprises sophistication. They have either "seen it all" or read about it. We are all like New Yorkers in that regard.

Or so I thought...UNTIL...I heard about men willing to strap on explosives so they could go to a land full of virgins. Now THAT was new. We all applaud soldiers who willingly put themselves in danger to protect their country. They risk their lives, but they want very much to come home and LIVE. Remember the kamikaze pilots toward the end of WW2? They chose suicide over the shame of surrender and I get that. But these "modern" terrorists on donkeys volunteer to die so they can score God points. Does God GIVE points for killing yourself and others?

Times have changed and we have an out-dated tendency to think logically and reason about the motivation of our enemies. We need to remember Iran's President Ahmadinejad. We were floored when it became obvious that he wasn't just irrational in the things he was fostering...but that his whole PURPOSE in his actions was to cause instability. We can't comprehend that because it cost the lives of his countrymen. So how would you broker peace deals with that man? We found out that in his belief system, they expect their "Mahdi" to return when things are in a flux. So he's all about causing flux and foment. Apparently in Iran their T-shirts don't say "got milk?" ...they say "got foment?" Ahmadinejad thinks his course is righteous. How far can you torque that twist on righteousness?

Now we need to rethink motivation and consider in that there are some people who LIVE for the exit door and doing harm to innocents in the pursuit of their cause is considered honorable. How topsy turvey is that? Didn't God say "choose life"? Where is their regard for life? Are they hearing from their Maker? Those poor souls deal daily with a punitive mentality and think God is like them (also punitive) and they die punitively. Trouble is...they take others with them.

Which brings us to the current state of our nation. In America, our starting place has traditionally been a place of reason, but we can no longer be sure that we all launch from that common spot. Reason would say that if leadership governs recklessly, they must either be newbies or inept. But that's true only if we launch from the same goal: i.e., the good of our country. We need to realize the possibility that current leaders have another view of "the good of our country".

The Obama administration is taking our country on a wild ride. Now these words aren't meant to imply that our President is a Muslim. Why bother speculating about President Obama's religious roots...when his philosophical roots are openly revealing contempt for the "sweet land of liberty". Listen to the cheery economic optimism from the White House these days about our economy turning around. Really? Only 4% of the stimulus money has been released into the economy, with the rest coming in 2013. Huh? We sure were in a desperate hurry to get that piddlin' 4%. Can a single-digit percentage really be jumpstartng the economy? Where did the rest of the money go? And what if the US economy is spiraling down as the dollar devalues? "Well, it IS!"...you might say. And what if nothing seems to be addressing the problem...but in fact, just more insolvency was coming to pass as more as more folks lose their jobs? "It IS!"...you say again. Then logic would demand we try something different to get better. But what if insolvency WAS the plan? What if economic takedown might be a way to take America to a desperate place that would allow paradigm change. We were promised change. But it may be morphing our country into something she never has been before. It all goes back to context and belief systems.

There was very little context offered to explain Candidate Obama's thinking when he arrived on the national scene. The things he said were lofty, but didn't quite match his voting record. The press brought softball questions to Mr. Obama's altar (if they brought any questions at all). We never found out why those radical people who hated America and could be placed on a flow chart with connections to our president...weren't seriously examined. They were either poopooed (like Bill Ayres) or sacrificed (like Jeremiah Wright) or ignored (like Sol Alinsky). How many Americans do you think even has heard the name Sol Alinsky? Yet our President patterned his beliefs after Mr. Alinsky.

And so now, little by little, we are seeing the president's true colors. Van Jones is "who Mr. Obama is". Valerie Jarrett (the president's Senior Advisor/ Assistant) LOVED Van Jones and so did Michelle Obama. Do you know what Mr. Jones espoused? A former Communist and Black Nationalist, he is NOT a friend to Israel and he thinks Bush masterminded 9/11. Is he crazy or does he really think those things? It makes the regular corrupt politicians who just broke the tax law to pad their net worth...seem like harmless underachievers.

Van Jones has resigned now. But he is a young version of the 60's generation who were radicalized under college professors and took to the streets to protest the country's capitalist system. They are all grown up now, and in grey hair they may look harmless (think Bill Ayres). But their choice to leave the streets and work within the system has paid off. I would think having a number of czars in Mr. Obama's cabinet would certainly qualify as success at "working within the system". I heard someone say the other day that this radical "ruling elite" were openly flaunting their arrogance in power grabs and that their arrogance was building a tower to the heavens. Well, that sounds familiar. Wasn't Babel the test run on that project? Hey Yogi Berra, it's deja vu all over again!

They have not taken into consideration that there is already Someone in the heavens in charge. He will have the final say about this "tower of power"...just as He did the last one. Man persists in trying to make a name for himself while God's purpose is for us to make a name for Him. Rebellion is a tired, old story with yet another new face on it.

"An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?" Jeremiah 5:30,31 NKJV