In the name of Jesus

I have a strong belief in God and my spiritual life has played an important part of my adult life so I don’t want anyone to take this as making fun of religious belief. That is far from my intent.

I went over to someone’s house, years ago, and she asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee. “Yeah, sure that would be good.” I answered. She went over to the coffee pot and pulled the basket out to put in a new filter and coffee. As she pulled the filter out, roaches ran everywhere. She raised her hand and said “In the name of Jesus, be gone. Roaches be gone!”

I am a believer, but I was shocked at her actions. I told her to get a can of bug spray and not to call on Jesus. To me this was something that she needed to handle and not something that needed to be turned over to the Almighty.

Why is it that we expect God to handle every thing? Common sense tells me that there are some things that I have to take care of myself. While I frequently pray about actions I am going to take, I cannot neglect to take care of the basics responsibilities of living.

As a country, we use the expression “In God We Trust” but I wonder if God can trust us to take care of things that need to be done. There are expectations that we will act with honor; that we will take care of things that are within our realm of responsibility.

I should not expect others to pay for my foolishness and I certainly don’t expect the government to step in and take care of me when there is a problem that I should be handling myself. The government, like the Almighty, should be called on to protect us when we can’t take care if ourselves. In both relationships, I have personal responsibility.

I cannot protect myself from industries that pollute the water and the air. The government has a role in protecting me in this instance. I like to know how many calories are in foods and what the ingredients are. Organizing disaster relief is a function of government, but why in the world do people expect the government to take care of everything?

People live in flood zones, but don’t have flood insurance. They expect the government to help them after a flood. People bought houses they couldn’t afford. With their knowledge, mortgage companies falsified applications so that those mortgages would be approved. When the economy went south, those same people expected the government to step in and help them. I could write a book about other examples but I’ll stop with these two.

We need to handle some things our self.