My wife came running up the stairs, yelling, “’There’s water in the basement—it’s spraying everywhere!”

It was one of those times when I wish I had a “Life” remote and could push pause.

Everything in those words was on the other side of good.

According to their accountant, Mr. and Mrs. Asu are in trouble.

Annual income:     $25,000 (this has been declining for years)

Annual spending:   $36,000 (this has been increasing for years)

Credit card debt:  $161,000

Total debt:         $700,000 (includes all their obligations)

Mr. and Mrs. Asu aren’t employed. Their income is provided by their children who are old enough to work, but are still living at home. Child 1, with the best job, pays $20,000 per year. Child 2, with the second best job, pays $5,000. The other two work but don’t pay anything. They are the parent’s favorites.

Mr. and Mrs. Asu have max’d out numerous credit cards and all of their income goes to make the minimum payments. But, they continually find ways to obtain new cards and keep spending more. In fact, this is the delight of their lives.

I listened to President Obama’s remarks tonight, as he not only addressed the grieving people in Newtown, Connecticut, but the nation. The murder of 20 small children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School has grieved us all.

I appreciated his quoting of 2 Corinthians 4 and Luke 18 and his remarks that acknowledged the plans of God, the hope of heaven and that our life here on earth is fleeting.

He also stated that this tragedy has left us with some hard questions, that we shouldn’t tolerate this kind of violence anymore and that he was going to use the power of his office to engage with others to find how to prevent tragedies like this from happening. He wondered if we would simply say that the politics are too hard.