Gratitude Is What Makes America Great
Yesterday I hinted that socialism might be a Christian ideal, but that it was impossible to execute until everyone was on the Christian bandwagon. I have been a lot of places and seen a lot of socialism, there is one single reason why it just does not work unless everyone knows God.
Earlier this week I linked to an article on how covid policy was formed in Great Britain. Health care in that nation is entirely socialized. Been there several times, including visiting friends that just happen to be physicians – I have seen the problem with socialism. I spent several weeks in the Soviet Union – I have seen the problem with socialism. I have visited Norway where much is socialized and nowhere is the problem more apparent.
The reason socialism does not work is ingratitude. People come to expect things as an entitlement rather than a gift and when that happens everything breaks down. We get hints of it in this country. I was in California a couple of weeks ago, and life there can just be unpleasant, mostly due to ingratitude. You hold the door for someone and they walk through like it is their God-given right. Road rage is commonplace and steeped in ingratitude, as if people have a right to drive as fast as they want in what ever lane they way.
Ingratitude breeds hubris. That was what was so apparent in Norway. So many people I met were just haughty, presuming that higher education grew on trees and healthcare fell from the sky like manna. Ingratitude breeds sloth. Because people did not have to work in the Soviet Union, alcoholism was a massive problem.
Things in the United States come pretty easy anymore. At my age I am drawing Medicare, and I pay for a supplement. I had a knee replaced a few months ago and just got the final bill – I went out of pocket a whole entire $15 for that surgery and follow up therapy. And if I did not know God and know that all good things come from Him, then I would think such was par-for-the-course rather than be deeply grateful that I live in a country where that is possible.
We are just a few days away from Thanksgiving – a deeply American holiday, but one increasingly swallowed by the crass commercialism of Christmas. (The Black Friday/Christmas commercials during yesterday’s college football binge were highly irritating.) But Thanksgiving/gratitude is what makes this country work. It is the lubricant in our social interaction and the difference between entitlement and blessing. Gratitude is what makes this country work when so many others don’t work so well.
Gratitude is born of knowing that there is a giver – someone to be grateful towards. As religion decreases in this nation – as fewer people know the God that grants us this boon – so Thanksgiving gets lost in the glitter of Christmas. We are all headed to church this morning – I hope and pray. Advent does not start until next Sunday – it is not the Christmas season yet. Let’s focus on being grateful and ask God to make sure the nation never forgets the gratitude it owes Him.
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