Economics 101

Just got this email from Tom Cloud.  It certainly rings true!

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

The Last Time

I want to ask you a question that I've been wrestling with over the past couple of weeks.  It seems that in the busyness of life at home, it's easy to ignore, not think about, actually forget about this.  But in the quiet loneliness of a hotel room, it screams at me.  In the absence of children's laughter mixed with the frustration of defiance and disobedience, in the absence of the constant nagging of email and ringing of phones, in the absence of being tied to such a strict schedule of daily chores and carpool lines, God's quiet voice speaks.

How aware are you of God's constant presence in your life?  How often do you speak to Him?  Really?  We know He's in our heart, but how much does He control our lives?  When was the last time you really talked to Him?  I don't mean the last time you asked Him for something.  I mean when was the last time you communed with Him with no other agenda save to get to know Him?  When was the last time you sat in still quietness to do nothing other than listen to His voice?  

It takes a while to clear our minds of all our "to do's".  We drift easily into day-dreaming and have to refocus ourselves onto the task at hand.  It's like talking to our spouses in some ways.  Our minds so easily drift onto tangential highways that it takes effort sometimes to focus on what it is that is really being communicated. It usually takes me a few minutes to stop thinking about my to do's, Tara, the kids, my dreams, my hurts, my embarrassments, my deadlines......and just, well, just quietly sit there and listen, and pray, and not ask for anything other than His Spirit to fill my life, His presence to take over my soul, His word to overwhelm my entire being.

It's not easy to find the time - or the will.

When was the last time?