Weird Deaths and Me

Disgraced former Enron CEO Ken Lay is deceased. I don't know how I feel about this, since he had just been convicted of securities fraud and was facing jail. I think I wanted him to die in jail, and not on his own terms. Of course, that's not a good thought on my part, is it? You know what makes me mad about this whole thing, really? I shouldn't know who Ken Lay is.

If you would have asked me who Kenneth Lay is in 2000, I would have guessed the heir of 1/2 of the Frito-Lay empire. I had no idea he was busy destroying employee's lives to prop up a company that should have never been as big as it was. Enron should never have happened. This guy Lay formed his company on bad ideas, got in good with the Bushes, and systematically covered up the results of those bad ideas while tons of employees unsuspectingly marched towards their financial doom. Nobody could have seen this coming because he took steps to make nobody see this coming. And when it all crashed down, he wrapped himself in the Lord. I wonder what would have happened had he put on that Lord coat a few years earlier. But that rarely happens.

Here's the thing: I never put on the Lord coat until its too late, either. You know how in the song John Wayne Gacy by Sufjan Stevens, he sings "on my best behavior I am really just like him." Well, that's what has me bothered this morning. It's not like I'm committing massive crimes, but put into that Enron situation with the money and the white people and the affluent background and the Bushes and the power and the pressure, I hope I would have the good sense and Lord Coat to let the business naturally shrink or die, but I'm not sure I would. Thankfully, I will never get that chance. I'll never be a CEO of anything except my dog.

Ken Lay and I both need grace to keep from falling -- his fall just happened to be spectacular and public. I wish I had never heard of that guy, and I'm glad I haven't heard of all those other CEO's that aren't ripping everyone off. Let's keep it that way, shall we?

God is calling all of us right now, not with jail and death but with grace. Jesus died for us because we needed saving. That by itself is enough reason to put on the Lord Coat right this minute, isn't it?