Under The Olive Tree

Is Everything a Money Game?

HAVE you driven past a Casino recently? Know anyone personally who has won the Lottery - or even the scratch lottery? Been chasin’ anything lately? How is your pocket change? And your family?

HOW about the place you call home? And your neighbors - how are they? How are your kids? Have you met their closest friends - do you like them?

WE have heard report after report of people in catastrophe & want - earthquakes, famine - and war. Devastating typhoons and tornados - millions of people are losing their homes - and tens of thousands are dying - some facing horrible deaths.

IT is called a Crisis.

DO you know what a Crisis is? According to my online dictionary - it is an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending, especially: one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome - it is when a situation reaches a critical phase.

AND what to come next? For so many the simple truth is hardship.

IT is time to count our blessings - not our 401Ks because the unappreciated often, so very often - is the casualty of misappropriated values.

IF it is about commerce - and you are merely a consumer - not just of what you need to exist - but a consumer in fact - one that lives to consume - then heed the admonition of the Preacher from Galilee - “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”

SEARCH for that which has substance - and that which satisfies: and cherish the lovely and the genuine.

CAST off the burdens of the commerce of your soul - reach out - touch - understand - and be filled.

THE casino parking lots are full - do the patrons - or do we say “consumers” - experience “fullness” therein?

FAMILIES are broken, dysfunctional, isolated environments for so many - if there is a family to turn to at all.

Our basic values are skewed.

The Preacher of Tarsus penned, ” … godliness with contentment is great gain.”

The American Declaration of Independence calls for all men to have the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Again, The Preacher of Tarsus. “For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith - and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

It is time to drop out of the Money Game.

“Buy the truth & sell it not.” - The Preacher