“Come unto me, all who are tired, oppressed, and sick of life, and I will give you wonderful rest!” –Jesus

“If you like your health insurance plan, you can keep it.” –President Barack Obama

What if, in our own childhood experiences, the promise maker was not a promise keeper? What if we learn early in life that people say what they think we want to hear, or what they may intend to keep but can’t or won’t? Gradually your childlike heart turns a little darker and you become … an adult!

As a school bus driver, it was painful to watch this grievous transformation: the merriment and curiosity of the childlike kindergartners to the wounded, dark-eyed, heart-hardened high-schooler.

As an American citizen, it is equally grievous to watch the fundamental transformation from a country grounded in simple principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to a cynical, broken, fearful, heart-hardened society.

What if we stop comparing the current political leader to other presidents in our history (for he measures up not even remotely to the noblest of them) but to the measure for which he apparently aspires: a King. The King I choose to compare Barack Obama is the King of Hearts, The King whose Kingdom is Love, The King of Truth & Righteousness, Jesus Christ.

The difference, if I may be so bold, between Jesus Christ and Barack Obama is not in the quality (or in Barack’s case, the quantity) of the promises they make but in the quality of their character! Jesus, there can be little doubt, spoke Truth from the very core of his being and backed up that truth with sacrificial love for others. Barack has, there can be little doubt, sneering disregard for truth much less sacrificial love for others.

Jesus’ promises, reflecting His nature, have to do with his vision of helping each of us reach our potential for love, excellence, blessing, righteousness, moral integrity, caring, helping … in a word, the things that increase the joy of living.

Barack’s promises, reflecting his nature, have to do with what a massive, intrusive government will do to you if you don’t comply with his vision for your life. The “vision”? Remember “Julia”: a cradle-to-grave picture of government caregiving that in reality decreases the joy of living as it decreases the potential of dependents to grow in their own ability to care for themselves and bless others.

“Can a bad tree produce good fruit?”, asks the King of Hearts. “Is it fair?”, demands the King of Tort. Slowly we are losing the ability to discern between even good and bad promises, as measured by the growing frustration of private property owners (for a free society cannot exist without the responsibility of ownership) reacting to the brazen ungratefulness of those receiving government promised “entitlements”. The transformation in the character of a prideful American man humbly and reluctantly receiving aid to “get back on his feet,” to the “rights” of one human being living off the industry of another is a not only immoral but a violation of the principles that formed our union from the beginning. (It is no little thing that the Pilgrims learned, violently, that collectivism is destructive to the individual who forms the collective. On the other hand, they soon learned, inherent in private property is the duty to improve that property, if for no other reason than one’s survival may be at stake.) When we begin to elect “leaders” who share our own greediness and artfully “promise” legal justification for coveting we ought to sound the death knoll and grieve for the soul of this nation.

Those who strive to be like King Jesus, transformer of hearts, will reflect His selfless devotion, maturity and responsibility to be good to their neighbors and bless their enemies. Those who strive to be like King Barack, transformer of fundamentals, will reflect his lawlessness, impertinence, greediness, self-will and destruction of their enemies.

Good-Promise-Keeper, or Bad-Promise-Breaker?

Please America, choose wisely!