Blackfoot Valley Dispatch - The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980

As I think back about the way Congress has failed to address some major issues, I cannot help but scratch my head and wonder “What do they think their job is?” I mean we have put up with some of the most unproductive politicians I can remember. We have a large segment trying to legislate with no regard for the Constitution. They want us to become as destitute as Venezuela in fiscal and social integrity. We have some who think fiscal restraint is only spending say 4 percent over prior year’s spending. Our federal deficit for each of the past 2 years is 1.1 trillion dollars. Yes, it is 1,100,000,000,000 dollars. That is 22,000,000 families making $50,000 if my math is right. I cannot really grasp those numbers.

We have some wanting open borders, others want to stop most all immigration. Some policies seem to throw our allies “under the bus”. Others want to take the mismanagement of social security to new levels of greed and use those funds for more pork, when it is our money!

I guess my point is, why do so many of our elected officials want to ignore the real needs of our nation. What is the point of trying to get a 4-year-old to read, while at the same time having tax structures that penalize traditional families? Why does the government want to run healthcare when it cannot have an accurate count of its citizens? How can we support government oversight of our education when the results of more “oversight” leads to many graduates who cannot function in today’s business world? Why support cancer research when we riot for the right to kill babies? Yes, our times are about the most conflicted, confused and corrupt days the world has ever seen in my opinion.

We have gone off the deep end as saying goes. So, what are we to do you ask? Well, first of all, we need to learn to let the truth be the truth. By that I mean we need a moral compass society can gauge life from. Just look at the disaster created by allowing boys and men, who claim to be girls and women, compete in women’s (female) athletics. It is horrible. Girls are being forced to having boys undressing with them. Say what? Yes. So much for common sense.

We have an ever-expanding drug crisis ruining our families and communities, yet we continue to expand legal marijuana use. Why not expand methamphetamine and heroin into the legal side of life and tax it as well? We could make more revenue to misuse! Where does it stop?

I cannot see any hope for things as long as we call right, wrong; good, evil; and evil good. It has not worked in the past, and it is not working today. I must say I am glad Christmas is right around the corner. Reflecting on the Virgin birth of Jesus, God becoming man gives me hope. Seeing the wonder and joy on the faces of the children who came through Santa’s workshop and the smiles on their parent’s face gives me hope. Visiting with some of the others who provided crafts at the workshop gives me hope.

But the bottom-line of hope for me is that Jesus has forgiven me of my sins, all of them, and has reserved a place for me in his home, what we call heaven. The politicians can blow it. The borders can fail. The economy can collapse. My wife can get cancer again. My Christmas stocking can be full of coal, but with Jesus in my corner I know things will be fine. In fact, one day they will be perfect, because He is the Perfect Savior who reached down from Heaven and raised me up with him when I placed my faith in Him. That is real hope, that is what the Birth of Christ is all about. My desire is that we can all wake up Christmas morning with real hope, I hope we would all wake up with Jesus in our hearts, and those we love by our side!

(Dave & Lisa Carroll are area missionaries with InFaith, America’s oldest Christian home mission agency. You can contact Dave at 406.459.8935 or [email protected].)