Culturally speaking, Americans are obsessed with sports.  For most, one of the first things we engage in as children is some sort of sports activity.  We learn from a very early age how to engage in sports, which teach us life lessons like how to be team players, how to be competitive, self-esteem rises, they teach us how to play fair, and how to be good winners and losers.  According to whom you talk to, football is the most popular team sport, and supposedly, collegiate football is more popular than professional. 

Penn State was a great school with a great reputation and had an insanely popular head football coach, who ruled for 45 years.  But this institution turned its head for at least 14 years regarding the abuse inflicted by one of its coaches.  The question begs to ask, so why was this allowed to happen?  Organized sports are an industry that brings in billions of dollars but surely, money and reputation had nothing to do with intelligent university staff turning a blind eye to these actions, or did they? 

The public is obsessed with sports players and coaches; they are put on a pedestal and idolized.  We elevate them to such lofty and high positions that we make them think they can do no wrong and they are looked upon as untouchable.  The circumstances of misplaced loyalty, shame, scandal and the fear of losing revenue caused otherwise intelligent men to allow another to abuse children and then sweep this knowledge under the proverbial rug.  How did they sleep at night?  With all this being said, I think all concerned, especially the victims, need to be prayed for.

This is an unsettling kind of example to have to learn from but let us all be reminded that no object, no person, nothing is so important to us that it causes us to lose our character, integrity and morality, because if we do, it will result in our downfall…nothing and no one is worth that.

“For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.”   Jesus Christ

            JEHOVAH RAPHA – The Lord That Heals – Rapha in Hebrew means to restore or heal.  God is our Great Physician and can heal us of all things.  God not only to heals us emotionally and physically, His Word tells us He will heal our “land.”  Rapha means to restore something to its natural state.  Psalm 103:2,Matthew 14:14, Exodus 15:26, 2 Chronicles 7:14

The United States and Europe are both having economic woes; that is by no means new revelation but what I stand convinced of (and naturally it goes deeper than this) is that part of our problems are caused by something known as the “entitlement mentality.”  That means that somewhere along the line we have molded and adapted our thinking into believing that someone else owes us a good life, a great home, the best car, expensive clothes and we in turn have passed this thinking onto the next generation.  I am afraid that the US is following in the footsteps of countries like France and Britain, whose citizens have a mindset that it is the government’s responsibility to take care of them from the “cradle to the grave.” 

There was a time in American history when more people took pride and personal responsibility in and for themselves and did not expect others to hand everything to them and then do it on a silver platter.  Somewhere in the 1980’s our mentality started to change and we started believing that society’s institutions were now expected to provide for its citizens’ livelihood.  I am not talking about those who truly need help; provisions for the poor should never stop.  But for others, where did “work” and “pride” become such ugly words? 

Currently, there are about 46 million people on food stamps, our unemployment rate is 8.2% and our population is somewhere around 314 million.  Do those numbers add up?  These numbers include the unemployed, the elderly and children, of course, but how many drain our resources because they have no pride, semblance of a work ethic and/or collect resources they should not while they work??  Where are the moral consciences of those who knowingly allow others to take care of them?  This mindset smacks of arrogance and pride and will be the downfall of many but as sin goes, it never affects just the one committing the act itself. 

There is no easy fix to what we find ourselves in but if we want change, one of the first things we must do first is change our attitudes.