Australian Federal Budget

How do you take bad news?  Reprimands?  Being told that you were bad and need to pull your socks up?

Many of us don't like this.  We like to think that everything is good.  That we'd get top marks in our exam.  That we are good at everything we try.  We do not make any mistakes.  Nobody experiences poverty.  We can spend and enjoy life as we wish.

So when we are told that we have been spending too much, that our lives are not in order, that we have to tighten our belts and cut costs, we feel bad.

I think this is what happened when the recent Australian budget was announced.  People did not feel happy about the cost-cutting that the Prime Minister and Treasurer announced.  People like their affluent lifestyle, even living beyond their means.  Borrowing more than what they can afford.

But people cannot live like that long term.  We don't like to improve, we like to think we are already all right.  We may not be good, but we like to think we are.

Does this sound true to you?  Do you think that our human nature is like this?  Please tell me what you think.

If this is true, then how should we cope with reality?

Is there anything we need to get right within ourselves so to be acceptable before God?  To ourselves?  Or are we already so good that we do not need God?  God need not exist in our thinking?