Posted by
peripheral on Monday, March 29, 2010 5:02:27 AM
From My Perspective - - -
The phrase “Can’t Win For Losing” is a common one employed when best
efforts are either frustrated and/or fail to accomplish the desired
ends. It is not primarily focusing upon the Health Care Reform issues,
or Tea Party Movements, or an analysis that leads one to believe
Capitalism is lost and Socialism has replaced it. When frustrated and
feeling helpless, a person may shrug and exclaim: “I Just Can’t Win for
Losing!” Politically – one might feel that way - but there is more to
life, culture and the world than just American Politics and Posturing.
Consider this news item and headline: “Invasion of the Grasshoppers” or
“Day of the Grasshopper Looms”! The Wall Street Journal in a March 28th
item states: “Farmers and ranchers across the West are bracing for a
grasshopper infestation that could devastate millions of acres of crops
and land used for grazing. Over the coming weeks, federal officials
say, grasshoppers will likely hatch in bigger numbers than any year
since 1985. Hungry swarms caused hundreds of millions of dollars in
damage that year when they devoured corn, barley, alfalfa, beets - even
fence posts and the paint off the sides of barns…A federal survey of 17
states taken last fall found critically high numbers of adult
grasshoppers in parts of Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and
Wyoming. Each mature female lays hundreds of eggs. So the population
could be very, very high this year…Grasshoppers, which typically thrive
in the west at densities of about eight mature insects per square yard,
are a healthy part of the eco-system - and food for birds such as the
sage grouse. But last fall, surveys found 15 per square yard in hot
spots, and those numbers are expected to rise this summer. Peak
infestation areas can easily hit 60 or more hungry hoppers per square
yard - a population so dense that they swarm over every surface on
passing cars, cover country roads like a rug and lie so thick on grassy
patches. To try to get ahead of the problem, Wyoming has allocated $2.7
million for suppression efforts, including aerial spraying of the
pesticide Dimilin, which is fatal to maturing grasshoppers…”
For those desiring to provide for themselves, the Grasshopper/Locust
issue is an added frustration. This is especially true when one reads
another Headline: “CBO report: Debt will rise to 90% of GDP.”
One becomes dismayed when reading: “The Fiscal 2011 budget will
generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the
next 10 years, $1.2 trillion more than originally projected, and raise
the federal debt to 90% of the nation's economic output by 2020, the
Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday.” It gives little comfort
to know: “The Federal Public Debt, which was $6.3 trillion ($56,000 per
household at the start of 2009), totals $8.2 trillion ($72,000 per
household) today, and it's headed toward $20.3 trillion (more than
$170,000 per household) in 2020, according to CBO's deficit estimates.
That figure would equal 90% of the estimated gross domestic product in
2020, up from 40% at the end of fiscal 2008. By comparison, America's
debt-to-GDP ratio peaked at 109% at the end of World War II, while the
ratio for economically troubled Greece hit 115% last year.”
One wonders if a Headline in the non-too-distant future might appear
about this nation: O, How The Mighty Have Fallen! What should one due
if a plague of grasshoppers comes upon a portion of the nation? What
can one do if the nation bankrupts itself – and effectively loses
prestige and power in the world? Must one be relegated to those who
feel helpless and frustrated, and exclaim with them: “I Just Can’t Win
For Losing!”? Perhaps we should learn from a Prophet of God who faced
similar challenges. In Habakkuk 3:17-19,
a day of great calamity and after Habakkuk had asked the Lord for the
answer to the personal and national plight, he comes to this
conclusion: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes
on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no
food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The
Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a
deer, he enables me to go on the heights.” It may take desperate times
to get people to redirect their priorities and focus toward God, and
God Alone. There is still time to do this – but – it needs to be done
soon - now! Consider these things with me!