What's In It for Me?

We are both in our sixties!  What lies ahead for us,

our children and grandchildren?

I have had the privilege of recently attending our Utah Gang Conference.  I have attended this conference and the Troubled Youth Conference for many years running because of my employment.  I formerly investigated child abuse for the State of Utah and now work in Student Intervention Services for a local school district.  I am amazed at how recent evidence based research seems to support religious and Christian held values.   However, I have to admit that I have a period of adjustment following each of these conferences when faced with data that confirms how serious things are.   It rocks me from a state of security and peace for a moment when I consider how much human trafficking is on the rise, for example, even locally.  It makes me want to protect my 20 grandchildren and strongly suggest that their parents monitor their privacy settings lest any would be predator can know of their whereabouts.   It was sobering to hear with greater detail the plight of refugees, and hear some of the attendees confess their fear of opening our borders to them, yet realizing that our greater threats are from the home grown terrorists who are mostly youth and young adults who have become disenfranchised perhaps from a growing lack of purpose in life because of an increasingly "me-oriented" society with declining values. 

I had to face the fact while attending the conference that these things might, as born by statistics, actually impact me.   I cannot, as one individual, stem the tide of growing evil and danger.  So what can I do?  Do I vote for a president that wants to erect a wall and tighten legislation to keep people out?   Or is the answer to vote for an individual who knowingly put national security at risk by using an unprotected web server, who went against directives, for what she considered a greater good or greater convenience.  Both of these leading contenders for our most crucial political position of power, are in my opinion quite narcissistic.  There is no one so attractive, so wealthy, so intelligent that they should be making unilateral decisions that impact us all. We need order both in our homes and in our government.  We need the best minds working together for solutions.  It doesn't work to give people everything they want, to go into debt to be all things to all people.  It doesn't work to make individuals hostage to a few, to put a burden upon the middle class that is too difficult to carry.  This type of rationale doesn't work in a nation or in a family.

So what is the answer?  What do religiously inclined individuals do now?  The reality I had to admit is that my life and/or the quality of life for my family is at risk.  We may be directly impacted by terrorists, gangs, and the ungodly.  We may have our lives shortened and be called home much earlier than we had hoped.  We may suffer severe trauma even if our lives are spared.   I realized that I share something with the whole of the human family that throughout all of history has dealt with.  It is live with an uncertain future, knowing that all my prudence, energy and cautiousness cannot perfectly alter that fact. 

My personal decision is to support my government leaders in welcoming refugees.  It is the humane thing to do.  It is the Christian thing to do.  But, because of my beliefs, I know the sum and substance of things is not found in prosperity or safety, it is found in righteousness.  I love the words of Paul in Hebrews chapter 10:  "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense  of reward.  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.  For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul."

I am not surprised that Hillary and Donald are top contenders for president.   As a nation we value assertiveness, and "the end justifies the means" way of doing things.   We cannot hold them to a moral standard and level of integrity that we ourselves are not willing to comply with. 

So my personal goal is to strive more diligently to keep the Sabbath Day holy, to pray more earnestly, to be more honest in my dealings, to seek the wisdom of great minds living and dead, and do all in my power to abide by the principles and values that this country sought to establish itself upon.  I am imperfect.  I am selfish.  I am seeking to overcome the natural man, or in my case, woman.  I can seek to live prudently and morally.  I want to teach these values to my family and those within my circle of influence.  I want to repent and encourage repentance.  Then and only then, do I feel I can look forward to an ultimately glorious outcome.  I can pray over my doings and my choices believing that God does care and that if we lack wisdom, we may consult with him as James 1:5 counsels.

I wrote the following poem in the eighties:  While imperfectly written, it is still a good summary of what I believe:

Look at this land God created for me:

the flowers, sun and moon, the skies and the sea.

Can't people see the Creator who made

this glorious world, whose foundations he laid?

All people ask is, "What's in it for me?"

They really don't care for humanity.

Love has waxed cold

and all I am told

is the family's dead and morality's old.

"Me go to war--me go to work?

You feed me, and you clothe me,

Get going, don't shirk."

I didn't ask to be born or to live

so don't expect me to help or to give."

Abortion, free love, liberation's their song.

How narrow, how selfish, how blinded, how wrong.

"What's in it for me, what's in it for me?"

Listen, please listen, I'll help you to see.

Love, joy and peace through giving and growing

and enduring it well;

Through patience and faith in HIs presence

we'll dwell.

Why can't they see, surely they must

that they have been given a high sacred trust

to tend this earth, to care, to grow,

to realize they reap just as they sow.

One day we'll hear them weep, wail and cry:

"That's what was in it for me!  O Lord, O Lord,

"Why couldn't I see?

"Why didn't you tell me?

"Why didn't you scold?"

"I did. I did!  But your hearts were so cold!

Your eyes were open, but you just wouldn't see

that what you have done unto others,

ye have done unto Me." 

Vicki Robinson



Be the change you wish to see in the world!

Recent Family Birthday Gathering.
There is so much to enjoy and look forward to!