Mental Musings

This past Sunday, Jim Testerman used the aliteration "Grumbling, Growling and Griping" as part of his sermon. This reminded me that while on vacation recently I was thinking about the general attitude of people around me. As a minister, I often hear a lot of complaining. It is not that people who attend church are always complaining, it is just that generally if they are happy they don't have a need to speak to me about it. So, it goes without saying that the main reason those who attend church speak to their minister is because they have a complaint about something. I have done my best throughout my 20+ years of ministry to realize that the complaints are not meant as a personal insult or as a judgment on my character. But I must admit that anytime you hear 80% complaints versus 20% compliments it is going to affect your attitude as well. I often find myself in a rather foul mood immediately following worship services or special events because of the complaints that I he

I am not In favor of starving the poor or taking medicine away from the seniors or taking away the pay of any federal employee (with the exception of the President, his cabinet and Congress), but I am likewise just as much not in favor of allowing our country to become so indebted that my future grandchildren will be working 80+ hours per week just to pay for our current Social Security, school lunches, college loans, and every usueless governmental grant that Congress can get approved for their districts and states. We can easily become enslaved to our own government if we continue to allow them to spend, spend, spend as they promise more and more freebies to the people. I have only had to pay federal income taxes a few years in my entire adult life. I generally qualify to get everything back except for the 15.2% Social Security payments that I am required to pay as a self employed minister. Yet I realize that if we continue to ask the wealthy to pay more and more of the load, then th