Our O.P.M. addiction

When Sarah Palin mentioned on Hannity & Colmes our national “addiction to O.P.M.,” it wasn’t just political hyperbole or a cute attention-getting line. It was a jolt of reality.

She was referring to “Other People’s Money.” (O.P.M.)

Her comments were in reaction to the recent Wall Steet spasms, in which the chickens of greed and sloth were actually, in the now nearly-prophetic words of Jeremiah Wright, “coming home to roost.”

Our government no longer is one that frees its citizens to explore and mine their God-given talent and ability. Instead, it’s a big brother with deep pockets that pays us to be quiet. As long as we stuffed full of their money, we are sedated. We tend to be free and loose with money, as long as someone else is paying.

But, I cannot blame a political party or any one person. It really comes down to the individual – to me and you.

As God-followers, people of the Book, and Red Letter belivers we have a different standard. And that standard should never involve an addiction to O.P.M.

If you are on an expense account, do you always spend money “like it was your own?” Do you cheat on your time or drag your projects out, because your company is footing the bill? Do you justify your entire worklife on easy access to O.P.M?

As a nation, we may soon come to our predicted hard life of the end-times. As individuals, we must free ourselves from this addiction and “work as unto the Lord.”