I firmly believe there is a God in Heaven. I also believe that there is nothing in this life that will not ultimately be used by God to achieve His Plans and Purposes. I also believe that sometimes there are lessons that we can learn from fiction even those that we do not agree with 100%. For instance, I find the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand to have prescient insights into the world we are living into today. While Ms. Rand’s beliefs differ from my own with regard to God and His role, that does not negate her ability to foresee and foretell in a fictionalized story the devolution of man from a creature and society of responsibility, accountability, and independence to one chained by the very institutes created to protect our independence (at least in the United States).

Reading Atlas Shrugged is an investment in time and not an “easy” read. It asks us to think about the road we are on. What we are willing to accept? What we are willing to sacrifice and how far we will be pushed before we shrug off the imposed responsibilities of “saving the world” versus taking individual action to save ourselves and enable others to save themselves?

Today we are watching the seemingly inevitable change from self-reliance to dependence on government. A shift from the individual giving to churches and charities to help the poor and needy to expecting “the government” to take care of everything. As long as humanity exists, we must fight our own natures and be better than we are through faith and actions that demonstrate our faith. We cannot delegate our responsibility to “someone else” and sit back. Each of us is responsible for ourselves and our families. We may upon occasion need a little help up, but not a hand out.

We were meant to work, to achieve, to produce, to make something, and contribute to the world we live in. If there are those who are unable (not unwilling) to care for themselves, then we are meant to care for them also. But we are not meant to support the able-bodied, the lazy, or the shiftless.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 (KJV 1900)
10  For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

 

Author:  Lea A. Strickland, MBA CMA CFM CBM GMC
Copyright ©2012 Lea A. Strickland
All Rights Reserved

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