Bail Outs

Today while watching the morning news, I found myself wrestling with the idea of bail outs. But the news story I was watching at the time was not talking about the economy. It was talking about a single mother of fourteen children--eight of which were just recently born. Day after day I have watched the media criticize and scrutinize and pass judgement on this woman for her lack of discernment. I am not saying I fully disagree. I am not sure why a single woman who already had six children would go to extreme measures to become pregnant.

Nevertheless, I am at a complete loss as to why this woman is being given the third degree, while bank CEOs, car companies, and congress itself are given a pass. They have not received half the criticism and scrutiny. They get an obligatory slap on the wrist one second, and billion-dollar hand outs the next.

Meanwhile, we as a nation have closed our fists in a self-righteous fit, adamantly denying this single mother any help or resources she might need to care for her children. We have decided that she made her bed, and now she can lie in it.

We are willing to let her fail, but not the banks. Isn't that backwards?

I firmly believe in the power of failure. There are times when I have grown much more from failure than I would have from being rescued. I think we should let banks and corporations fail, but I do not say that with spite or naivete. I believe they would be better off in the end for lessons learned.

On the other hand, I can no longer sit back and watch this woman get torn apart. She clearly needs help--not judgement. Lives are at stake--failure is not the best option! She needs a bail out package. I should know. I've needed a few myself. I serve a God who can redeem anything and anyone. He is a bail-out God. When my own sin condemned me, He paid a very high price to bail me out. The Bible says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. His kindness, which comes to us even when we have blown it, leads us to repentance. It is a redeeming love, and those who receive it, those who truly grasp it, are changed by it.

The banks weren't changed by their bail out. We've all seen the reports of lavish vacations and corporate jets that were ordered after receiving the bail out dollars. Government money in this situation is what I would call "pearls before swine." There was no redemptive power in those bail outs.

But it could be different for Nadya. And I am not saying the government should step up. I am saying WE should. We who have been changed by the bail outs we have received. It's all about grace.

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