I Guess This is Goodbye.

I guess this is goodbye. If I'm reading the sign of the times right then everything changes on August 2. The debt ceiling, budget crunch, cap, save and spend debate will officially slap all of us across the back of the head on that fateful day and those lucky enough to die in the next few days will be the blessed ones.

Deep breath people. Deep breath. One more.

Here's my prediction. We'll all still be here on August 3 no matter what happens. The USA will still exist. We won't implode. But we will have to make some fixes. My biggest fear is that the digging in everyone is doing is going to become the new normal. If that's true then we're in bigger doo doo than we even suspect, And it's not economic as much as it is about character.

Here's some thoughts.

1. Please Mr. and Ms. Congressperson take your name off any and all pledges of any kind. Both liberals and conservatives ....just purge your "I have to or I won't get reelected accounts". We count on you to think on your feet and have a willingness to flex every now and again. We know you put pen to paper to curry favor with the zealots supporting you but remember you're supposed to be representing all the people.

2. Please Mr. And Ms. America do us all a favor and at least consider points of view different than your own. Whew. We're talking fatal tunnel vision afflicting good portions of our population.

3. All of us. Let's think of the common good instead of what's only going to be good for us and our particular tribe.

4. Think win-win because this lose-lose and win-lose nonsense is killing us.

5. Remember that the economic mess we're in is the result of some really bad choices over a number of years by a whole lot of political administrations.

6. The mess is ours to own because our leaders gave us what we wanted. We felt entitled to more and we got it.

7.  Everyone ask themselves the question "Is there any possibility I could be wrong? If yes, vote in the next election. If no, think about sitting one out.

8.  If you're reading this and you're a person of faith remind yourself that the Lord of your life is supposed to be Jesus and not a political ideology. Seriously. I'm a pastor. That's what it says in the scripture. Honest.

9. Ask yourself. "Am I really governable?" If that's true you can't get your own way all the time.

If nothing else, this time of crisis demands taking stock of ourselves, what we believe at the very core of our beings, and our own behaviors. If enough of us did that the we'd be on the way to discovering the opportunities before us. Perhaps, we'd even be putting an end to a good share of the melodrama that is tying our country in knots.