Election Blues

I am glad that Scripture has prayers of lament and seeking God when discouraged or in despair.  Yesterday Psalm 57 was my prayer: “O God, in you my soul takes refuge…refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.” And from Psalm 25, “Free me from my anguish; you are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long.” 

It’s hard being a red person in a blue world.  It’s not about politics – I’m tired of political speeches, debates, ads and emails.  No, it’s about the changes I see in a country that is very different from the one in which I grew up. 

In public school I learned about history.  Real history, things that actually happened and how they affected our nation.  In 1775 America was red with the blood of patriots who believed in freedom, a God-given right to liberty, and a representative form of government that would not seize individual property or income.  By 1783 the sovereignty of the United States of America was recognized, and the greatest experiment in government began.

In the 1830’s, my native state was red with the blood of Texans fighting for their independence.  In the 1860’s America was red with the blood of its citizens, fighting for the right of all men regardless of skin color to be free.  In the 1900’s America was red with the blood of its people fighting for freedom in other countries – WW I and II, Korea, Vietnam.  In 2001 America was red with the blood of innocent men and women as terrorists brought war to our own soil and our fight in the War on Terror began.

But today America is blue.  I saw the map on election night and began to realize how much we have changed.   Again, it’s not about Democrats or Republicans.  It’s about America, how she was founded, and where we are now headed.

We have become a nation whose majority believes that it is acceptable for our government to confiscate one person’s income without that person’s permission and give it to another in the form of welfare, Social Security to those who haven’t paid in and aren’t citizens, “free” health care services, and excessive taxes on property.  We have a president who has established government czars (“an emperor or absolute monarch”), something never before done in America, and whose use of the executive order to get around the law is historical in its excess.  Our Supreme Court has expanded the power of eminent domain, ruling that personal property can be “transferred” to another private entity for “economic development” and only the government decides what is “just compensation” (Kelo v. City of New London).

To see America heading down a path its Founders fought to avoid breaks my heart.  I have done my best to work for the principles in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  Others have worked to bring about different principles.  I must accept that for now at least, they have prevailed.  That’s the way America works and I support the process.  Some will celebrate victory this week and in the months to come, anticipating benefits that others must provide them.  Others, like my husband and I, will begin assessing our remaining ability to make income, our property, and our stake in an American small business to decide how best to protect and preserve what we have worked so hard for.  We will also freely of our own will decide how best to help others less fortunate.  I don’t need government to make me do that.

And we will turn, as always, to our faith.  Governments come and go, but God is the same yesterday, today and forever.  I don’t understand why He allows certain circumstances, but I’ve learned He is always there for me.

I’ve been praying Psalm 23 in a new way since Tuesday night, taking it very personally.  What a comfort to know that even when my beloved country as I have always known it is walking through the valley of the shadow of death, I don’t have to fear any evil because God is with me.  

God loves all His creation, but those who come to Him through the shed blood of His son Jesus Christ get to be in relationship with Him.  That relationship, and the security of eternity in heaven it brings, gives my life meaning and purpose while I’m here on this earth.  Maybe America is still red.  Red from blood on a cross where Jesus gave up his life for our freedom - freedom to live the way God wants us to, and the liberty to love and treat others rightly no matter what color is on the election map.

Reflections on Independence Day

Three days ago we celebrated our nation’s 235^th Independence Day.  July 4^th, a day of fireworks and picnics, a day or rest from our paid labor, and a day to recognize and remember the sacrifices of real people over 200 years ago that we might be free.

We are all blessed and very privileged to have been born in this great nation.  We must never forget that our freedom and the liberty we enjoy were hard-won; they are not guaranteed and not to be taken for granted.  The Founding Fathers (an amazing group of men, check them out if you never have) made it clear in their documents that our independence can remain secure only as long as We the People have a firm conviction that our liberties are a gift of God.

Did you know:

• The Declaration of Independence is a one-time, one of a kind document?
• The idea of a government getting its power from the consent of the governed, who are individuals with God-given not government-given rights, was new?
• The Declaration states 4 clear references to our Creator God
• The signers ranged in age from 27 to 70 years.  They were businessmen, farmers, doctors, lawyers and preachers.  Most were Protestant Christians, some with college degrees, some with military service.
• Many of the signers had their homes and property destroyed because they declared their freedom.

Next time you are tempted to complain about that bad day at work or whine about how everything is going wrong lately, consider what it would feel like to come home to nothing – all burned to the ground viciously simply because you said you wanted to be free.   I’m going to try to live a little more sacrificially in light of those great patriarchs.  Not financially or water rationing for the yard – we are all doing that these days.  But in time, giving more thought to how we got here and what I can do to stop the erosion of our freedoms by those who would make us dependent on government rather than its head.  Putting my money where my mouth is.  Writing articles as a citizen journalist.  It’s not even a sacrifice compared to what those guys did.  But it’s what I can do.

Freedom

Recently I heard two foreign pastors speak at our church.  One was from Romania, the pastor of a large evangelical Christian church.  He spoke of the amazing ways in which God answered prayer to start their church, grow it in spite of an oppressive communist government, to topple that government and even to establish an accredited university.  You couldn’t miss the supernatural work of our Creator in that story.

The other was a young pastor of a small evangelical Christian church in Jerusalem.  He is a Palestinian Christian.  He spoke of persecution, and great faith in the face of it.  He talked of masked men of that country’s predominant religion that came to his door to kill his father, more than once, and how God protected them.  He has been beaten and threatened many times simply because of his Christian beliefs.  His church has to keep moving from one rented building to another because the ‘religious’ men vandalize the buildings where any Christians dare to gather in public.  At his church they used to keep water pots by the altar to put out the fires started by bombs tossed by those men.  He told of two young girls who were converted from the Muslim religion to Christ-followers, and how they went from unhappy lives to daily joy in the Lord.  They were so happy they shared their faith in Christ every day with the young children in their neighborhood.  They were killed in their beds because of it.

I have taken for granted the incredible freedom we have in this country to worship wherever and whenever we choose.  No one has tried to kill me for what I believe; the worse I have experienced is ridicule and that not often.  I go to church not even thinking of a firebomb attack.  It burdens my heart when I see any American freedoms jeopardized, whether by our own ignorant government or power-hungry people within it, or the truly wicked at heart who would see freedom squelched for their own reasons.   Blood was spilt over 200 years ago in this country so I could have this freedom, and blood is spilt every hour of every day in other countries by those trying to keep others from exercising it.

May we cherish our freedom, live it out, and fight to the death those who would try to steal it.