Am I Destroying America?

In this episode of Wake Up, Look Up, Pastor Zach reflects on the growing concerns surrounding Social Security and what they reveal about our tendency to avoid difficult realities. He challenges listeners to consider the responsibility citizens have in addressing long-term problems rather than ignoring them for short-term comfort. Looking to the words of Jesus, he reminds us of the importance of counting the cost, facing challenges honestly, and taking ownership of the future we are helping to shape.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Zach Weihrauch

Follower of Jesus who has graciously given me a wife to love, children to shepherd, and a church to pastor.

What is Wake Up, Look Up?

Check out new episodes of our daily podcast, Wake Up, Look Up, with Zach Weihrauch as he interprets what's happening in our world through the lens of the gospel.

Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, am I destroying America? This is prompted by an opinion piece I read in the New York Times recently by Jason Furman, who actually worked in the Clinton administration in the White House. And he talks about how they were dealing way back when. This is my childhood in the early and mid-90s, with the problem of Social Security, of its funding potentially running out. And Furman writes, now, almost three decades later, we're still dealing with the same problem. In fact, the Social Security Retirement and Survivor Trust Fund is projected to to be exhausted in only six years, which would trigger a, 22% benefit cut unless Congress acts. Furman says everybody knows this has been a problem for three decades. Everybody's seen this problem coming, but no one has even attempted meaningful reform. And as a result, the only muscle they've developed is kicking the problem down the street another five or six years with temporary funding solutions. He warns that in the end, we're not actually solving the problem, and we're setting up future generations to be devastated by a problem we could try to solve if we were willing to come to the table, work together, and find an actual solution. You know, when I read this article, I know Furman takes aim at Congress. And certainly. Look, you're not going to find me defending the United States Congress. I wish they could come together and work together on anything. I wish the country mattered more to them than partisan politics. but I actually don't think Congress is the primary problem here. You know who I think is me and you, the voters. Because the truth is, since I have been voting age, which I reached in 2001, here's one thing I know for sure. The quickest way to lose any electorate support is to talk about overhauling Social Security. The minute you do that, people get scared. People blast you and say that you're breaking a promise you made to previous generations. They accuse you of robbing and defrauding future generations. In other words, the hyperbole goes up, the rhetoric goes up, the fear goes up, and so the conversation stops. We have taught Congress, who cares about nothing as much as they care about being reelected, that the quickest path to reelection is to pretend we don't have a problem with Social Security and entitlement programs. We don't want to hear about it. We're like a kid who covers his ears and covers his eyes and says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't tell me Social Security is running out of money. I don't want to hear it. And as a consequence, we have the problem. Because, you see, congressmen and women, they come and go. You know who's left holding the problem? You and me. The voters who told them with our votes we didn't want to hear about it. I can't help but think about Jesus here in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 14, when he says, for which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost? In other words, Jesus says, what kind of a person would start to build something that they don't even know they can finish? And the answer is me and you. At least as voters, we have asked Congress to keep building a tower without actually considering whether or not we can pay for it. And spoiler alert, we can't. Look, an uninformed electorate that really only cares about now and not about the future is one that gets the leadership it asks for and really gets the leadership it deserves. And. And again, once again, this is less about politics. I, know there's not a button we can push to change this. This is more about you and I. We don't solve problems by sticking our head in the sand. We don't solve problems by not learning and becoming educated, by netflixing ourselves until we fall asleep. We solve problems by rolling up our sleeves, working together, learning the issues, holding people accountable, and actually doing the hard work. The question for America's future is not whether Congress is going to solve the problem, because Congress works for us. The question is whether or not we're going to let them expect them to ask them and vote them back in once they try. That's what it's going to take. You and I being honest about problems and expecting demanding, supporting leaders who actually deal with those problems. Hey, thanks for checking out Wake Up, Look Up. For more content, be sure to visit the Christ Community Chapel app or website, ccchapel.com.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at [e-mail]!