The Paceline

It’s rivalry Saturday. The last day of the regular season for college football. The day reserved for the big game between two arch rivals. The more animosity the better – at least for those who market the game. It is just a game – but one with big economic implications. Check the ratings.

Rancor, hostility, aversion, and bitterness seem to fill the hearts of everyone who chooses a side. Often those sides are declared by something other than where you went to college. 

Republican :: democrat.           Liberal :: conservative.           Good :: evil.           Socialist :: capitalist.           Black :: white.      The popular thing these days is to choose a side. Whatever happened to bipartisan agreements or just agreeable disagreement among friends?

Apparently it’s easier to choose a side than to choose a shade of gray. Maybe gray is just not cool. It doesn’t make for good ratings.

The term “bipartisan” is not in the Bible, but Tim Keller reminded me this month* of some proverbs that raise the idea. He contends the Bible’s view of wealth and economics does not fit “neatly into either socialism or capitalism or into the current liberal or conservative models.”

The lazy do not roast any game,
    but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt.   – Proverbs 12:27

High net worth, whether real or relative, can result from willingness to work, to change, to risk, and to learn. But Keller suggests “we take far more credit for our prosperity than we should.” Is success attributable only to one’s determined free will and good fortune? The older I get, the less I believe in coincidence.

An unplowed field produces food for the poor,
    but injustice sweeps it away.   – Proverbs 13:23

Sometimes laziness leads to poverty. Sometimes unfairness by man or nature leads to economic ruin. What’s the right balance between accountability and mercy? The older I get, the grayer I get.  

The poor plead for mercy,
    but the rich answer harshly.  – Proverbs 18:23

Private property is important, but property rights are not absolute if we are the stewards, not the owners. Deuteronomy 23:24 says you can walk through your neighbor’s vineyard and eat all the grapes you want. But you may not put any grapes in your basket.

That does not fit into today’s standards of law and order or into any social-justice programs. That is gray.

The older I get, the less inclined I am to choose a side.

*God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life (November 7 & 29). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. – my daily devotional this year from the book of Proverbs