Amos 8:4-8. God is warning those who "trample upon the needy" and "bring the poor of the land to an end"; those who cannot wait for the Sabbath to be over, so they can start selling again; those who use false balances and deal deceitfully; those who buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. He has sworn that he will never forget any of their deeds and the land will tremble on their account. Everyone who lives in the land will mourn because of their wrongdoing.

Two questions occur to me here. Who is doing this today? And who are the needy? We are surrounded by the needy, the poor, the suffering, the vulnerable, but do we really see them? Are we alert to their needs? I have been trying to make it a habit to look up and look around me, to not be distracted by the things that the media are telling me are the needs of my time (the media is crafting a narrative that often is not true), and actually see the people who are around me, what are their needs? God put me in this place and time for a reason. He put the people around me here for a reason, too. The people who I can help are the people who I should help. They are the needy to me. If I look at them with disdain or scorn because they think or look differently from me, and therefore I fail to see their actual need, then I am one of these people who God is warning about.

We are, in fact, all these people sometimes, but we are also all the "needy" at times in our lives. I remember how that feels, the feeling of the floor dropping out from under you, having nothing to hold on to but God. It is terrifying, especially for someone like me who has never really known true need. I look back, and I look at who was there for me in those moments. It is surprising - it is often not the people I expected, and sometimes it is the people who might be seen as my adversaries, if I had judged people the way society tells me to. I have had complete strangers be the saving strength that I needed in those moments. These people did not owe me anything, they were acting out of human kindness and goodness. That is when you see people's true nature - when you see how they respond to other people's need.

So, that is how I apply this reading to myself, but I also very much see it's application in the bigger picture. Right now, politicians especially, but the media and others as well, are professing to "care for the needy," while completely ignoring (and actually making worse!) the true need that is all around them. They are playing up their own virtue for power, and dealing very deceitfully. When considering any one of our political or cultural "leaders," ask yourself - is this person really protecting the most vulnerable? How do they treat the unborn, the elderly, the poor, the out of work, the people suffering from anxiety, alcoholism and other addictions, depression, or even the every day people who are just trying to do their jobs, and make a living, and raise their families in a just and moral way? When you run almost any one of them through this analysis, it is painfully clear that most of our polictial and cultural "elites" have no true care for the needy. They truly are the people Amos is warning here.

Further, they are making things worse by promoting fear and anxiety. They divide us by telling us to fear each other, avoid each other, and stay away from others - they might make us sick! They exploited an emergency to take away our basic freedoms, and they have become addicted to the power that brings. They are manufacturing, or greatly exaggerating, social ills to divide us even more, and then labeling anyone who disagrees with their "false balance" of those issues, so they can feel righteous in ostracizing them, or cutting them off, or even mocking and belittling them. This also all serves to draw attention away from their lying and misdeeds. And they keep getting away with this. It is astounding to me!

I very much sense that we are heading for a big fall because of our personal and societal failure to see to the needs of those around us, to care for the truly vulnerable. We know who these people are if we quiet the noise, push aside our ambition and desires, and listen with our hearts. We all better do this, especially our "leaders," before it is too late!