Who's Swimming Naked?

The Skinny Dippers

 

Question:  What do business magnate Warren Buffett and New Covenants author Luke have in common?

 

Answer:  Different versions of the same message.

 

Buffet’s version

Warren is said to have once observed that “only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” The tide has gone out on the banking industry and it seems most bankers as well as their largest depositors have been swimming naked and are now blaming the tide going out for their deshabille (look that up). Banking and bankers have exposed themselves as metaphorically being scantily and skimpily clothed. They’ve had plenty of time to adapt their investment strategies to a changing environment and simply have not done so. Now they’re left with not enough to cover them.   

 

Scantily - in a way that is small or insufficient in quantity or amount.  

Skimpy - providing or consisting of less than is needed; meager. 

 

It’s not just banking – look around, nearly everyone and every business have removed the garments that once protected them. Credit Card debt – way up.  Savings – way down and most are living paycheck-to-paycheck.   It’s clear to see, if one simply looks around, what little of their clothing remains will be insufficient in the coming days. Most can sense our society is sick and grows sicker by the day.  However, rather than doing a little adulting by doing something that would withdraw the tightening noose, most simply tantrum about waiting for others to fix the problem. However, a palpable anxiety is present in our culture that we, like Julius Caesar in 49 BC, have crossed the Rubicon, the point of no return. A perfectly clear sense exists that the consequences of our actions are irrevocable and are simply waiting for us to arrive. Sadly, moral bankruptcy precedes temporal bankruptcy by just a bit but the outcome is secure in both cases. It doesn’t feel like a fairytale ending.

 

 

Here’s Luke”s version of the same message but spiritually rather than temporally oriented.

 

“For nothing is secret which shall not be made manifest, neither hidden which shall not be made known and go abroad. Take heed therefore how you hear, for whoever receives, to him shall be given. And whoever receives not, from him shall be taken even that which he seems to have.” NC 

Luke 6:4

 

How did we go from a country founded on God to one devoted to Gods destruction?  If one devotes time to the study and understanding of scripture and compares their message to observable conditions in our culture today, it is clear that the same receding tide exposing temporal deficiencies is also exposing spiritual scarcity and decay in all religious institutions.

 

Isaiah said it this way -- “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment” (_{OC Isaiah 1:1).}  

 

We whine but tolerate abortions up until birth. We whine but tolerate drag queens stripping for children.  We whine but allow murder sprees driven by progressive ideology. We whine but tolerate the targeting and arresting Christians while ignoring those who murder Christians. We whine but allow the praising of trans ideology that drives social agenda. Etc. etc. etc.  Alexander Pope gives us an idea of how we’ve crossed the Rubicon to tolerance, allowance and acceptance – it’s a point of no return.

 

“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien

As to be hated needs but to be seen;

Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”   

Alexander Pope

 

Spiritually, we are as the bankers, scantily and skimpily clad. The tide is going out and quickly exposing those who are swimming naked.  Christ puts it this way about those that are being revealed as the tide recedes – “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (NC 3 Nephi 6:11)    

 

To reinforce the idea, he gave us the Parable of the Ten Virgins – 5 were found to be skinny dipping with the bankers and enjoying the decadence and pleasure offered at the beach.  The other 5 were somewhere else making wedding preparations for their own marriage to the Groom. Like the bankers the 5 unwise blame the receding tide and seek relief from others. (_NC 

Matthew 11:5)

 

All can sense our aggregate spirit is sick and grows sicker by the day.  Like the bankers, all have been given time to do a little adulting, adapt and change their life strategies, come in from the frivolity of beach and pursue a course toward the NorthStar. Orienting our progression toward the pole star should be a simple task, aiming you at purpose and providing a reference point to keep you moving in the right direction. Yet – well let’s just say “few there are that find it” _{(NC Mathew} 

3:45)

 

Between me and that which I know I should do are usually the recognizable but unspoken deadly seven that hang out at the beach - pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.

 

Time to get out of the water and as far away from the beach as possible.

 

Signed

 

John The-Not-So-Beloved