God Is On His Throne And All Is Right With The World

Sunday, December 7, 2025

I have been a regular listener to the Hugh Hewitt Show since 2001.  That’s a long time to endure the host’s unfailing, loud and unbearable braggadocio regarding the college football team that plays in Columbus, OH.  The host has not lived in Ohio for his entire adult life, just as I have not lived in the place I grew up – Indiana – for my entire adult life.  My connections to the state of my rearing remain as strong as his.  Therefore it brings me great joy, happiness (and no small amount of return fire) to announce that last night INDIANA UNIVERSITY, BEAT OHIO STATE – solidly – FOR THE BIG TEN FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP.  (It was routine in basketball for many years, but not football.)  The Cleveland newspapers and Sports Illustrated are noting just how good IU actually is.  This might just get mentioned in every post moving forward for a while – but on to serious business.

Yesterday, HotAir carried a Stephen Moore piece in which he notes that it is young people most worried about “affordability” and yet they are participating in the workforce in every lower numbers.  Moore makes a number of good economic points after his observation, but I sense a spiritual crisis in his finding.  Proverbs says, “Poor is one who works with a lazy hand, But the hand of the diligent makes rich.”  There is a certain unwarranted expectation to complain about the cost of goods when one is not working to make a living – a certain self-regard.

Look, I get it.  I may be old and retired now, but I remember my youth and the financial struggles it entailed.  I won’t bore you with the stories that today’s youth will describe as “walking uphill in eight inches of snow both ways.”  But those stories are not made up.  Everyone when they are young struggles financially.  There is a unique pride in expecting things to be any different.

Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, “For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.  For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies.  Now we command and exhort such persons in the Lord Jesus Christ to work peacefully and eat their own bread.”  We talked a lot about gratitude just a couple of weeks ago.  It is most ungracious to simply expect things to come your way.

Paul also wrote to Timothy, “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Which points out that these youngsters are not just being selfish, they are letting down their loved ones.  Paul’s condemnation of them as “worse than an unbeliever” is quite strong.

The measure of an individual is not in the avoidance of a crisis, but in how they respond to one.  No one can argue that the price of goods has risen dramatically in recent years.  Anyone that watched the Biden Administration print money like it was newspaper saw that coming.  Our measure will be taken in how we deal with it.

This second Sunday in Advent we continue to anxiously await the birth of our Savior.  We believe.  We should act like we believe.