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How to react to a disturbing election

White House

 

 

In the wake of a disturbing election how do we cope?  Here are a few suggestions from a long-time pastor. 

Do not live in fear. 

 

One of the most prominent messages from God to his people in the Bible is simply yet powerfully this; “Do not be afraid!”  These exact words occur 74 times in the current NIV translation.  The words were spoken in times more uncertain than ours.  While this election has elicited fear on all sides for multiple reasons, it is the heritage of believers in all times to “trust and not be afraid” (Isa. 12:2).  As Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).  Our hope is always in God, not a person or a political process.  And when we feel threatened, we look to God for our hope and strength to overcome.

 

Do something fun 

Jesus himself recognized that we needed times to get away from the stress of thinking about things like elections (Mark 6:31).   Sabbath rests and time of exercise or recreation help us to keep our perspectives wholesome and they lift our emotions too.   Personally, I like to take a long walk in the nearby forest preserve. 

 

Stand firm in your own life for what is good. 

 

One of the most disturbing things to me about this election cycle has been that it has seemed to further legitimize the rude, the crude and the divisive in America.  Both parties set new lows in negative advertising.  So all of us face a challenge afterwards as to what our vison is for our country and what our behavior will be.  Will we be part of the decline or part of the recovery?   For Christians, our course is clear.  “Show proper respect to everyone” (1 Peter 2:17).  “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Eph. 4:29).   This is a high calling that affects how we use language to emphasize a point or express anger, what movies we approve, what jokes we tell, how we speak about those with whom we disagree, who we choose as heroes and stars, and how we treat those different from us.   Let us be “eager to do what is good” (Tit. 2:14). 

 

Pray! 

 

A pastor friend of mine referred to this verse this morning in a post. “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain” (Ps 127:1).  No matter who is in charge on this earth, peace and blessing are ultimately God’s gifts.  This November is also a good time to remember one of our basic prayer verses, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6-7).   Pray especially for our president elect whether we like him or not.  If you like him, pray that God will use his strengths to benefit all.  If you don’t like him, pray that God will protect the country from his weaknesses.  (The same prayers could be prayed for every public servant.)  Pray for the government transition in the US as well.

 

There is a time for everything  

For younger voters especially, I would encourage a little of the perspective of Solomon.  “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl 1:9).  I recall a conversation eight years ago after Obama’s first victory.  It was a chat between a fervent Republican and a strong Democrat.  The Democrat said pointedly to the Republican, “Well, if we can survive eight years of George H. W. Bush, you can survive eight years of Obama.”  I thought of that comment again last night as one of the commentators mentioned that it is extremely rare in American history for a party to hold the presidency more than eight years running.  There seems to be a cycle that occurs regularly in our sturdy democracy.   The pendulum swings repeatedly.  I have seen enough elections now to have observed that swing multiple times and I agree.  This is why parties in America go back to work and start thinking about next time, like sports teams planning for the next season.    

 

 

All verses from Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2001 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

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A Song for Soul Healing

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God Has Taken the Spiritual Initiative; Faith is Our Response

God reaches out to us through the Bible

“The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him” (2 Chronicles. 16:9).

“All throughout the Bible this is one of the certain ways of God. He takes the initiative! And what he initiates, he completes! (Henry T. Blackaby)

Most of us can look into our own personal history and see examples of God’s gracious hand.   Maybe it is times when God protected us. Perhaps it is an incident in family history where God helped someone in your family circle through a very difficult time.  Maybe we are simply filled with a conscious thankfulness for all the material blessings that God has given.  Perhaps there is an awareness already of God speaking, of God’s presence, whether through Christian services, the reading of Scripture, or in personal devotional time.  All of these are witnesses for us that God is reaching out to us personally.

Christians firmly believe that God takes the initiative to reach out to us. That initiative began in the Garden of Eden when God came looking for Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:8, 9). In history, that initiative continued in the selection of Abraham and continued with God working through the nation of Israel down through the centuries to help us learn about holiness and about the character of God.  God’s initiative reached a climactic event in the coming and the life, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But that was not the end of God’s initiatives.  Through the Holy Spirit, God’s initiative continues in the lives of each and every one of us by inner impressions and outer circumstances that guide us to follow Jesus.  These initiatives are the prevenient* grace of God in our lives. Our faith then is simply a response to the divine initiatives of God.

*If this is a new word to you, it is actually an old English word used in this context by John Wesley which means ‘going before.’

 

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Journal Meditations Wisdom

Praying Deeply

Lady at prayer
Praying with our whole lives

 

A Devotional Challenge

This year I’ve been reading from one of my favorite devotional books, A Guide To Prayer For Ministers And Other Servants. Each week, there are some readings to prod one’s thinking. Today the readings were about prayer that goes so much deeper than words. In our troubled world today, we must learn again that our religious life cannot be separate from our daily actions if we expect society to change for the better. I was meditating on the following quotes.

“Love to pray. Feel often during the day the need for prayer, and take trouble to pray. Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of himself” (from A Gift for God by Mother Teresa).

Today we feel so inadequate to the task of changing our world. Yet it is through prayer that God enlarges our capacity and magnifies our spiritual strength so that we are able to do the good works that he has planned for us. Through prayer the “immeasurably more” of God works through us (Eph. 3:20).

Prayer at Work Everyday

“If when we plunge our hand into a bowl of water, or stir up the fire with the bellows or tabulate interminable columns of figures on our bookkeeping table, or, burned by the sun, we are plunged in the mud of the rice field, or standing by the smelter’s furnace, we do not fulfill the same religious life as if in prayer in a monastery, the world will never be saved” (quoted from Gandhi by Carlo Carretto in Letters From The Desert).

How can we save our nation from violence? It will only happen as the hearts of people are filled with nonviolence. Through prayer God changes our hearts. Continuing in prayer makes us uncomfortable with any hypocrisy that remains in our attitudes and actions because ultimately they hinder our prayers.

“[Jesus] lived his message before he spoke it. He preached it by his life before explaining it in words. This was Jesus’ method and we too easily forget it. In many cases catechesis is reduced to words rather than to ‘life,’ to discussions rather than to the pursuit of Christian living. And here, perhaps, is the reason for the poor results” (Carlo Carretto in Letters From The Desert).

Jesus admonished us that those who are wise would not only hear his words but put them into practice. In so doing, they would build a strong and durable foundation for their lives.

“Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” –Jesus  (Matthew 7:24).

A prayer for today

Oh Lord of life, teach me to pray deeply–with my everyday life, with my whole heart and also with my words of devotion.

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Journal Meditations Wisdom

Following Jesus requires life-long learning

A devotional excerpt from today’s message

The evangelical and revivalist traditions of the American Protestant churches over the last hundred years have strongly emphasized making a decision to follow Christ.  That is a good thing because until we make a decision, most of us drift in indecision and ultimately drift away.  Better to decisively answer the call of Jesus.

But there has been one downside to this emphasis.  Some have emphasized the decision to the detriment of the walk with Jesus.    Like a hypothetical person who buys a car and then inexplicably keeps walking, riding the bus, or hiring a taxi everywhere they go,  some so-called Christians think that having a “decision” in their records is all that is needed.  More liturgical types might substitute becoming a member or being baptized as their moment of decision.  But anytime our Christianity is only a decision of the past and not a present pursuit, there is a big misunderstanding.

Jesus calls us to continuing discipleship

However, if we remember that Jesus calls us using the word “follow” we will easily avoid this error.   Following is by nature a continuing activity.  It’s something you do every day.  The word “follow” reflects the true nature of our relationship to Jesus.   We are continually modeling after him.  We are continually listening for his voice.   We are continually understanding and appropriating more of his instructions.   We are continually seeking to walk in his footsteps.   Another way to say this is that Jesus doesn’t just call us to a one-time decision, he calls us to a day by day, week by week, year after year discipleship.  Think about it this way, nearly all professions I know of require continuing education for continued competence.  Anyone who is successful in their field is already doing continuing education whether or not it is required.

Your future is built on the improvements you are making today.

This is true of your Christian walk.  This is true of your marriage.  This is true of your relationship to your children.  This is true in your professional life.  This is true in your hobby.  Continued learning is part of our basic commitment to Jesus.   As Peter put it.

“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18 NIV 2011

So the corollary is that following Jesus is a life-long learning process.  And there is a wonderful promise that goes with this.

“He who pursues righteousness and love finds life prosperity and honor.” Prov. 21:21

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Journal Joy Notes Meditations Wisdom

How is God at Work?

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The Vision of Peace is to be Pursued

The Christmas Angels announced God's vision of Peace of earth.

“Peace on earth…”

This morning’s message spoke of the dream of peace that began with the angel announcement to the shepherds on that first Christmas night.  Often in our warring world, that ideal seems so far away.  But it is up to us to put it into action anyway.   Here is a comment by famed Catholic writer Henri Nouwen on the same subject.

Henri Nouwen speaks to our time…

The marvelous vision of the peaceable Kingdom, in which all violence has been overcome and all men, women, and children live in loving unity with nature, calls for its realization in our day-to-day lives. Instead of being an escapist dream, it challenges us to anticipate what it promises. Every time we forgive our neighbor, every time we make a child smile, every time we show compassion to a suffering person, every time we arrange a bouquet of flowers, offer care to tame or wild animals, prevent pollution, create beauty in our homes and gardens, and work for peace and justice among peoples and nations we are making the vision come true.

We must remind one another constantly of the vision. Whenever it comes alive in us we will find new energy to live it out, right where we are. Instead of making us escape real life, this beautiful vision gets us involved.

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Journal Joy Notes Meditations Wisdom

First frost and snow flakes too!

Flowers rescued from the first frost and arranged in a basket that was my grandmother's
Flowers rescued from the first frost and arranged in a basket that was my grandmother’s

As one who dabbles in gardening, I like to keep track of first frost dates.  Here in northern CT, this has been a wonderfully warm fall and we have not even been close to a cold night until the last two nights.  There has been frost in each of them.  I went out on Saturday to do the things that gardeners do on the last day before frost.  I gathered green tomatoes and  cut zinnias, marigolds, daisy mums, Shasta daisies, and a few other flowers for a couple last fresh bouquets.   Never mind that I hadn’t really picked many until then. It’s the sense that it’s the last time I’ll have that opportunity until next year.   More then once I’ve been known to go out with a flashlight to get those last minute items.   In fact, I picked the marigolds in the dark this year after arriving home from a church event.   The first frost seldom arrives on a convenient night.   Like judgment day,  or consequences from bad habits, first frost descends into the schedule just when you wish it wouldn’t.   Blessed are those who have been listening to the weatherman ahead and those with a little margin in their schedule so they have time to do the last minute things.   It reminds me of Jesus’ words concerning his second coming, “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes” (Luke 12:37 NIV 2011).

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Journal Meditations Wisdom

The insidious power of unchallenged sin

Our UMC District Superintendent for the Connecticut District, Ken Kieffer wrote a powerful admonition on the destructive power of sin in our lives.   He uses an anaology that communicates well and writes with humor too.   There is much wisdom in this article.

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Journal Joy Notes Meditations Wisdom

Give Thanks to God

Praising God for his blessings.
Praising God for his blessings.

Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits
Psalm 103:1-2 NIV84

Today my daughter and her husband and our two grandchildren visited us.  What a joy to hug them all.  Even though we see them regularly, it is still a special gift to treasure their company.

This week I will be preaching on why Communion is called a means of grace among Methodists.  One cannot reflect upon this topic without becoming profoundly grateful for all that God has done for us in Jesus Christ.   The seemingly simple gift of this sacrament has become for us a magnificent mystery full of both theological and existential richness.    Every time we partake it not only reminds us of the facts of Jesus’ act of initiation of the sacrament, but it becomes for us an acted symbol of our own participation in the greater realities which it represents.  We are prompted toward ongoing repentance and faith.  It is no wonder that in many Christian traditions, this sacrament is called “The Eucharist.”  The word “Eucharist”  comes from the Greek meaning gratitude or thanksgiving.  How appropriate.

As I was studying for this sermon I noticed an excellent paragraph of encouragement to praise from Spurgeon in one of the devotionals in my Bible program. 

The Lord always deserves to be praised for what He is in Himself, for His works of creation and providence, for His goodness towards His creatures, and especially for the transcendent act of redemption, and all the marvelous blessing flowing therefrom. It is always beneficial to praise the Lord; it cheers the day and brightens the night; it lightens toil and softens sorrow; and over earthly gladness it sheds a sanctifying radiance which makes it less liable to blind us with its glare. Have we not something to sing about at this moment? Can we not weave a song out of our present joys, or our past deliverances, or our future hopes? Earth yields her summer fruits: the hay is housed, the golden grain invites the sickle, and the sun tarrying long to shine upon a fruitful earth, shortens the interval of shade that we may lengthen the hours of devout worship. By the love of Jesus, let us be stirred up to close the day with a psalm of sanctified gladness. (Charles Spurgeon – Evening Devotion for July 31)