We are assaulted on all sides whenever we pick up a newspaper, turn on a tv, or go online. The political rhetoric is heating up like a California wildfire, and shows no signs of letting up for the next three months. The pollsters tell us that Donald hasn't a chance; that Hillary has an unbeatable lead; she certainly has the political machine to make things happen, but a lot can happen in three months time. At stake is not only the presidency, but even more significantly, the makeup of the Supreme Court for a generation to come. Either way you cut it, the prognosis is pretty dim.
According to those in the know, I'm fast becoming the minority - an old, white male. My values and worldview I am told are fading into the sunset, but if that's so, I suspect there will be a long night before any bright new dawn comes our way. It could get downright depressing.
Yesterday I wrote about having to be careful what we hear. That goes for what we see, too. Three years ago when I started my daily journal, it was due to the bitterness of presidential politics that I was allowing to seep into my soul. My experiment in gratitude did wonders, but it's never a done deal. The world I knew growing up is long gone, and the one around me today is in many ways a foreign land. Evangelical Christians in the USA have been spoiled. The persecution Jesus promised his followers has not been our experience, so much so that the "prosperity gospel" is alive and well. We regard difficulties and troubles as indications that God is either absent or angry instead of signs of his favor.
The saddest part of it all is how we expect the culture to support our values and faith, and our dismay when it does not. I am as grateful as the next person for representatives that reflect my values, but I have long discarded the naïveté that expects them to actually have my interests in mind. Power still corrupts, as we see almost every day.
It is Saturday night. In a few hours we will gather to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the gift of his Holy Spirit to the Church. It is our opportunity to recalibrate, to once more set our bearings by the North Star of the Cross, and to remind ourselves to live in gratitude for a grace that is greater than all our sin, and for the life given to us that is not limited by the machinations of this world. Thanks be to God!
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