Really trying to come up with an in­clusive, conclusive comment about the events that currently seem to be besieging us seems almost impossible. We could view Watergate and very literally shake our heads in horror. Who’s to blame really doesn’t seem to matter much anymore, we just start; at the amount of grimy blame that’s been just below the surface all along. Optimists may glorify our government in that it redeems itself by allowing the grease to surface but we wonder at our naivete because we thought the gold paint meant there was something more than ugly tin un­derneath. We’ve been had and there really isn’t any denying it, so do we just lament our state or join the general mudslinging for whatever satisfaction; or what?

Winter isn’t exactly bright with promise and even though the white page of the New Year has just emerged we find a lot of suspicious smudges on it already. There’s the gas shortage, the energy crisis and in short our spirits seem ready to bum out. Of course, we could rub our hands with glee because the ultimate destruction we have spoken of so often, seems at last to have overtaken us; but somehow the satisfaction leaves us with a sour taste in our mouths.

We are Christians, in the world but not of it. We are a separate people, a light shining in the darkness that cannot be snuf­fed out. Our Christianity raises us above the mire here below and we find that we can rejoice and be exceeding glad in the face of persecution. In the prevailing des­peration and disillusionment we have Paul’s words echoing “I have learned in what­soever state I am therein to be content.’’

Yet, is that all there is, our own personal comfort? Have we forgotten that a city set on a hill cannot be hid. In our apathy as a nation we share the blame of Watergate. As Christians we must investigate our own lives to insure that the double standards and superficial morality haven’t also become the salve for our consciences. The present state of affairs is not a sudden unexpected devel­opment; it is merely an overflow of dirt, dirt that we’ve allowed to persist perhaps be­cause it has also pervaded our lives.

What can we as Christians conclude and learn from all of this. We must realize that the corruption involves us more than we like to think, we are after all products of the environment that we have allowed to perpetuate. We would do well to in­vestigate whether our spiritual lives are built on sandy foundation lest the winds destroy us as well. Most of all we must let our light shine before men, not smugly for sin is something our own lives are also re­dundant in, but unwaveringly and undiluted. We must daily recommit our lives going beyond material concerns to the pattern of our Savior. Then and only then will there be an end to bleakness and an ultimate cause for rejoicing.