What If?

I couldn't help but wonder this past week-end, just "What if?" I'm not trying to enhance the "Chicken Little Syndrome" and proclaim the sky is falling . . . quite the contrary. What if, while the snow was falling, and the banks were all closed for days, and some guy tried to light firecrackers on a plane, and Congress had just decided to print yet 300+ billion more dollars or raise the debt ceiling, and give us health care, and we mixed holy with profane for a winter holiday that nearly offends everyone now; things simply came to a screeching halt? What if many of us actually realized, life as we have known it, has changed, and within just a matter of a few glitches in a few days could forever change the way we do everything? Oh, the change has been like erosion . . . gradual over several years, but the shifting sand can no longer be shifted to feel like a foundation, and the ceiling of debt can no longer cover us and provide shelter. I've been particularly and keenly aware of the changes that have occurred since I entered the ministry over 15 years ago. Our religion has gotten much more materialistic and, well, greedy. Our government has gotten much more controlling, and the people have gotten much more divided and dependent. I told my husband, just this morning, to be considered outside of the norm in regard to religion, politics, medicine, and materialism is at this point, an award that I value greatly. It wasn't ever my goal, but it is a wonderful side benefit. I look around and I see so many people that are so utterly dependent upon the very things they claim to abhor and I just can't help but think yet another "What if." What if our lifestyle actually had to match our words? What if we realized we do believe in what we do? What if we realized we have replaced using our gifts and talents for a paycheck or social status? What if we realized, the banks could close, the roads could be closed, the weather could become unrelenting, and our money could be declared of no value? What if we realized all these questions I've raised could become reality with the exception of the weather, with just one or two keystrokes on a main computer? What if we wake up and realize G~D is allowing us to go our own way, just as HE did with ancient Israel?
Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word of YHVH came unto me, saying, Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against . . . a Prophet of Holy Scripture