Happy New President’s Day!
Disclaimer: This is an unbiased entry…..I couldn’t care less about politics. However, I’ve heard it said that you shouldn’t discuss politics or religion unless you want an argument. I can’t say I want an argument but…… I’m gonna do both so fasten the seatbelt!
Today was a far more heartwarming experience that I had expected. Watching our new President take the oath of office had great meaning today. I thought about the elderly African-American generation who thought that they would never see this day. I thought about the young African-American children, particularly little boys, who will have a hope now that some of us can’t truly imagine anyone not having in the first place. I thought about the prayer of Rick Warren and the prayer of Rev. Joseph Lowery… different but both to God and both in support of our new leader and his family. It should have been an incredible day of excitement for a community of people who have watched a country change it’s racial ignorance and intolerance into something quite beautiful… but for some it wasn’t.
Politics are one of my least favorite things in the world. I think the whole political arena stinks because good people tend to dwell on it. They let it turn them into either cynics, zealots, or apathetic bystanders. It seems to divide people.. just listen to talk radio. It is not the radio personalities that cause the division, they are just voicing the extremes of the political view and platform…. Okay, maybe they do stir it up, but it is on both sides of the fence.
How can we expect world peace or solve true problems if there is no common denominator. Some of the “right side” are already looking for ways to find fault in our new President… from complaining about socialism to how much was spent on the Inaugural Ball. Yet they are not alone, some of the “left side” are holding onto the hate that they too have been throwing out at leadership over the past few years… I see articles and blogs making fun of those who think differently or have moral convictions of their own…… And you know what I find funny? I’m talking about Christians…..or maybe I’m talking to Christians….
If asked the many of the questions I think we would find that no one wants our country terrorized, no one wants babies dead, no one wants people to starve or freeze to death because they have nothing…. Now there may be some who are truly ruthless and care about no one but themselves but I would have to think that most people truly want the same thing it is just the route taken to get there is where the difference is…
It seems only reasonable that it is up to the Christian community… the people who follow Christ, pray to Him and serve Him… that we put our “route takens” on the back burner and make this a time to stop the cycle that spins every four or eight years …. the world will continue the name calling, blaming, manipulating and disrespecting….I’m a total believer that without God seated at the tables of our homes or at the tables of the leaders of our country and our world, there will never be any peace. I don’t think it is possible without God. What should we do?????
Love one another-
1 John 3: 11-24
11This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
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Often in the morning when I am reading (a.k.a. quiet time), I will run across something that really stands out to me. Sometimes it is a Bible verse or sometimes it is a quote from a devotional that I read….wherever it comes from, I want to remember it. So, when one stands out to me I usually try (key word-try) to document the author and date found. I usually write them on Post-it notes and place them on a bookshelf that hides my desk which allows me to see them daily. Many times I don’t think about them being there, but today was one of those days that I felt compelled to look them over. As I was scanning the collage of sticky notes, I noticed a theme that I hadn’t before and thought it to be interesting having just followed an election….. particularly an election that seems to have divided so many…
The Prodygal Life 