This past week the Eagleton Center for Public Interest at Rutgers released a report stating that about half of us who live in the Garden State are dissatisfied with where it is headed. It seems that the statement translates into what is called the “high cost of living.” When I hear people complain, I wonder what they mean.
The poll results are sharply divided among partisan and ethnic lines. The question put was: Is the state going in the right direction? That’s a question we also ask nationally. But what does that question mean? Why are people dissatisfied? What is it we want and why do we want it?
The poll says older white people are more dissatisfied but this poll and many others do not really delve into what people are really thinking. Often when we think we are going the wrong way, we rely on our faulty memories of the past. Lent is a time for looking past nostalgia, recognizing we must surrender preconceptions before we get to Easter.
Prayer for the Day
Hardly have we gotten past Christmas, we face Lent,
Which jars us out of nostalgia into reality, O Lord;
We still want the Babe in the manger, not the Jesus
Who calls us to recognize who we really are.
Lord, we know we need you to call us to task,
But sometimes we just don’t feel ready for it yet.
In the name of the One who can open us to you, O God,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Anger, resentment and jealousy doesn't change the heart of others-- it only changes yours.
- Shannon Alder, American religious writer
Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.
- Robin Sharma, Canadian writer
I waited patiently for the Lord; God inclined to me and heard my cry.
God drew me up from the desolate pit of tumult, out of the miry bog,
And set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
God put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.
Happy are those who make the Lord their trust, who do not turn to the proud,
To those who go astray after false gods.
Psalm 40: 1-4