Faith's Concubine

So I always knew that Utah was a bubble. Living there I reminded myself of that all the time and tried to keep and outsiders perspective. But there's a huge difference between knowing that you live in a bubble and then moving out and experiencing that. Mt. Shasta is VERY different. I've run into so many different people with so many different beliefs... it's fruitcake out here but it's actually very refreshing. And something that I'm beginning to be more grateful for here is how many times my world view has been challenged. It's always tough when someone else exposes your ignorance, but that's how we grow isn't it? You learn not to take it too personally and welcome those attacks on your comfortable standpoint.
I've never really been much for politics. Not that I have anything against them, I realise that they pretty much run our lives, but my issue was that there's only 24 hrs in a day and I was more interested in other things so I didn't have time for politics... of course I've been challenged there again... and again... and again...
These last few months of my life have been interesting... For the first time since kindergarten, I have had NO school, at all. No homework, no projects, no tests... it is amazing! I can read what I want to read, study what I want to study, think about what I want to think about, play when I want to play and the best thing is that I can do all these things I want without the small nagging voice in the back of my head saying "you really should be doing homework right now."
Not only is there no school these last few months, but I've also been jobless... which means lots of free time. At first all my free time made me a little uncomfortable, I've never been in such a place before. But I learned that depending on how I used it, it was very much a blessing: giving me a much needed break and time to wrestle with my faith in deeper and more real ways than I had before.
It's kinda funny how you hear certain things all the time, but they don't mean much until they hit your gut, ya know? God has been smacking in the head these past few weeks hitting me with A LOT of hard truths about myself and my faith. So many it's hard to keep track. I think it all started when I finally married my faith with my politics.
I can't remember if I read it in a book or if someone had said to me something to effect of "our nation has moved from the freedom of religion to the freedom from relgion." Which seemed somewhat obscure at first, but makes a lot of sense. If my high school history serves me correctly, our country was big on freedom to practice whatever kind of faith we wanted. I don't believe it was intended to shield us from whatever faiths we felt threatened by. At any rate, not only is it impossible to completely divorce one's faith from their politics, but it's flatout wrong (at least in what Jesus calls us to).
I have been challenged and been learning about our government a lot over the past month and my findings, while not that surprising, are sad. I can basically say that it boils down to our country is run by the rich with the only agenda in mind is to make themselves richer. Greed rules our country, greed so strong it would perform at the expense of the people. There is so much that is amiss in our country, and I, like many others in my position, could rant and rave about our problems till the cows come home. But the overall downfall is it seems our government's purpose is to make a profit for those who control it rather than to serve the people of the country it rules. Of course any change would have to start with the people, but it seems the general mentality of our nation (myself included) is that "I need to get mine." And that's no wonder, look at the examples the leaders of our country set for us.
Jesus teaches his people to take care of each other. It seems simple enough, and it actually used to happen. The early church had exactly that. Of course their mentality was concern for others, not for their own wealth. If this country's gonna turn around it's gonna need a sicka huge paradigm shift. My desire is there, but I don't know if my heart is yet, that's something I pray for all the time. If we were to socialize health care, I would be ok with a couple hundred extra bucks in taxes if it meant helping someone else to live.
I don't know... it's so big, but I finally realized that my faith must drive my politics. Jesus doesn't want to be in every aspect of our lives except for the government, he wants it all. My faith has finally conquered my land of politics and has taken her as it's prize. This is the beginning I think. It breaks my heart to see the way this country operates, but I don't currently have an active answer. Jesus changed the world by reaching out to individuals while he was here, maybe that's where it needs to start.