Greed’s Bite: My lesson learned from the economic crisis

Well, it’s no secret now: we live in a country with insanely greedy people. We’re people who are intensely identified with our minds.

“Macy’s has a sale– I gotta go get something!”
“I want a new laptop– I think I’ll use my MasterCard!”
“I gotta have 4 bedrooms instead of just one, I don’t care if I am by myself!”
“I think I’ll take out a loan to pay the bills I’ve accumulated.”
“I think I’ll take out a loan to cover the loans I’ve accumulated.”

In case you don’t know what’s happened in this whole economic crisis, let me break it down for you in layman’s terms, leaving out some details, as I understand it all: there was a housing boom a few years ago, where tons of people were buying homes. Thinking this trend would last, mortgages were handed out left and right, and home builders built and built and built. Lenders made tons of money, bank CEOs made even more tons. So they got a little happy, and started giving more and more loans to make more and more money. Everyone stopped spending and saving their own money, and started spending other people’s money.

So, the free spending ways of both main street and wall street patrons have left everyone with debt. People stopped buying homes, leaving home builders stuck with empty homes and bad investments, which translated into bad investments for banks, which coincided with growing job cuts, which meant more losses for banks because people can’t pay their loans. It’s been one big shopping spree, and the country is now feeling the bill.

Click here to see how other people define the crisis on Wikipedia.

It’s a Greed Network. Many people on Main Street are colored Green with envy, tainted with uncontrollable desire, and drunk from the illusion of need, and they interact and do dealings with people on Wall Street who are probably more colored, tainted, and drunk than they are.

We’ve become the American joke… the rest of the world is either laughing at us, cheering because now we’re experiencing some type of hardship, praying for more destruction, or supporting us… And I’m not sure how many supporters we have left.

As far as money is concerned, I share in the country’s pangs. I live off of scholarship money, which is nice, and student loan money, which is not so nice. I get nice checks back from the school every year, but most of that money is government loan money. I own lots of things from my own personal money, but I pay for my home with a nice check from Uncle Sam, mixed with extra scholarship money. Because of bad choices made by people in my family, I’ve had to take out a loan to protect my butt from them. I still have a year to go in school. That’s even more debt.

Some people are unaware of how connected we really are. That’s why everyone will foot this $700 Billion bill.

The Huffington Post has a copy of the actual bill here.
I’ve heard lots of theories as to why this is happening.

“Oh, it’s the fall of modern-day Babylon.”
“Jesus is coming back.”
“The Mayans said the world would end in 2012. It’s starting to happen.”
“Here comes the Rapture.”

Anything is possible; some of that might be true, some inaccurate. What I see is something I have been feeling for a long time now. People will be “forced” to care about one another. To think about what really matters. People will be “forced” to live in non-judgment, non-attachment, and non-resistance. I think we’re all going to be faced with this stark reality: EVOLVE or DIE.

Now, I’m not trying to evoke fear or panic, nor am I talking about evolution v. creation. No one can dispute the fact that we evolve from young to old, childhood ways of thinking to adult ways of thinking. I feel like God’s time of evolution is beginning to take place, where people are going to be more receptive to Him. The perfect time to spread God’s goodness and truth, and the time to serve and love people, is now. Evolve, meaning change and grow for the better, or die, meaning suffer the consequences of your actions. I believe we are punished by our sins, not just for them.

So, I choose to change and grow for the better. I can’t do much about the student loans I have, but I can pay more attention to my physical and spiritual needs, the only real needs that exist, instead of what my mind thinks it needs.

I can choose to live in service, and to get rid of selfishness. Not by forcing it away or resisting it, because what I resist persists. If I resist my loan bill by putting it into a drawer, that doesn’t make it go away. CitiBank will still want its money. But I will choose to go into my weaknesses, face them, deal with them, become intimate with them, know them. If you know something, you know everything about it, including how to hurt it the most.

I can choose to make things about “us”, instead of “me”, “my”, “I”, and “mine”.

I really want to just love others and be there for others, and I feel like it’s happening! Lots of things, little, minuscule things, have happened over the past few months that have made me want to unleash demons onto folks… and lots of things, within the past few days, have made me want to just be with people, and lift them up, love them, walk and pray with them, enjoy their’s and God’s presence together, no matter what.

It’s time to be conscious instead of unconscious. Awakened instead of asleep. Will you choose to awaken, to really be about what really matters? Will you get about the business of knowing and being with God instead of just adding beliefs and theories and philosophies and more stuff to your mind? Will you live a life of non-judgment? Will you choose to find yourself in the Creator?

Just because I know about Jesus and know a couple of bible verses, read my bible, and have shelves of books that make me seem Holy, does not make me exempt. I’m still on this Earth, and I’m still connected to everyone else here. Hear me now: I AM NO DIFFERENT FROM ANYONE! Christians who have any sense of reality realize that they don’t have all of the answers. Those who do think that need to get a grip, in my opinion.

Let’s wake up now, y’all, for fear that we let Greed’s Bite kill us. Remember: Evolve, or die.