Wake Up Call

Up or Down can have many meanings including good or bad, rich or poor, light or heavy... It can apply to people or places, ladders and escalators, stock markets, sink or swim and so on. John Buchweitz, a good friend, offered to trade a book, just to read. John spent 20 years in the US Air Force followed by 32 years serving clients in the financial services industry, married to Norma, and resides at the Covenant Living Retirement Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan (where I also reside).

It turned out that this book, written by him in 2019, was so provocative and perceptive that I want you to know about it so you can decide if you want to read it. Basically, it is a wake up call to see what is happening to the good ol’ 244 year- old USA. No doubt you may agree or disagree, add or subtract.

S.o.S I Am Stuck on Stupid!: Waking Up, Rising Up, by John Buchweitz is 211 well-written pages and unusually perceptive as he suggests that America (as the subtitle suggests) needs to wake up, rise up and look up. You may not agree with his conclusions, but I encourage you to consider them.

In a section on The Great Awakening (and its decline), Buchweitz suggests that contrary to some contemporary criticism, the Constitution written over 200 years ago was created by well-educated authors with great insight and high morals. Subsequently, American society has seen improvements, but there have been growing failures that need our attention.

John has made observations about America over these 2-1/2 centuries, never thinking he would write anything about it until about twenty years ago. He began thinking about what was happening in our society and within the church after his conversion to Christianity.

Here is a quick summary of John’s concern for Wake Up Calls:

• Too many of these missing ingredients: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control*
• Too much reliability on elected and appointed leaders
• Excessive federal, local and personal unfunded liabilities and debt
• Over dependence on governmental subsidies (grants unearned)
• A lowering of reading levels among parents and teachers
• Decreasing marriages and the ease and availability of abortion
• Over-dependence on industrialization, entertainment-hospitality
• Declining higher-paying jobs and increase of low-paying jobs without benefits

These are only a few randomly chosen examples. For more of his valuable insights check out John Buchweitz' S.o.S. I Am Stuck on Stupid! It should be available for $10 or less.

* This list, known as "The Fruit of the Spirit," is found in the Apostle Paul's letter to Galatian followers of Jesus Christ. Read it in context (Galatians 5:19-23.)