Those that know me well know I am the perpetual optimist. I love to encourage people especially when they are going through a tough patch emotionally, physically, financially, relationally for I believe that is a major role for those claiming Christ as our Lord and Savior. I seek ways to lift people when I have even a slight sense that they are down or hurting for I know very well what it feels like to be down and hurting. As I step back from the fray of global chaos we see projected not only daily now but hourly, it is so easy to allow the crash of the unending events, most of which we do not understand, engulf us in a sea of angst, fear, worry leading some to go down a pathway to believe everything is a conspiracy or a plot. When reaching that state, the quality of one's greatest gift, their life, feels untethered or paranoia begins to flow toward the surface.
My wife loves to pose the simple question to me about my unending seeking to stay abreast of world events, my blog such as this, comments on FB about events and issues with the question being: there is nothing you can do about it so why spend time reading and writing so much about it? Usually that question is not met with a wide grin as I ponder the merits of the question for part of the fuel is this incessant need to understand why things are as they are linked with the driving question, how can we make the current state of matters better? So, therefore, my brain rarely seeks out the butterflies of life in la la land but rather take a serious, intense view of what I see reported trying to factor out the hype and editorial bias. It really both sad and disappointing in reading many news media sources at the blatant bias readers are exposed to by the editors. Right here in my local area the Canton Repository and the Akron Beacon Journal, two towns separated by ten miles, reporting on the same issues, will take a diametrically different slant in the summation of the reporting. When you stop and realize that news is the first blush of history, one can see the powerful influence of media in this nation and thus media must carry a great weight of blame for creating this frenzy that takes far too many down the shady side of our world for that is what sells; sick but true.
I do believe not only as a nation but as a global village we are on the water's edge of a sense of lost stability in our institutions, our political leadership, our societal mores; we are becoming a cynical people and that is very sad. I can see it and sense it in my own processing center and I do not like what I see in the mirror of my internal workings. I want to believe in my POTUS. I want to bask in my nation's status and stature in the world by the world. I want to believe people are honest. I want to believe the words I see and hear. I want life for my grandchildren to be bright and opportunistic as their lives unfolding. I want a sense of calm stability. And so you can know, I think my wants are perfectly with the realm of reason and worthy of seeking and believing possible, right?
But what do we see? Blatant hate because you wear a uniform, everything is common denominated to race, politicians lie, cheat, accomplish nothing, spend tax money in unexplainable ways and want more and more to fuel the engines of poor governance. Our confidence in our elected leadership is nearing zero and for very good reason. The cynicism at the White House has fueled much of this for the heavy handed approach to governing funded via unimaginable debt is absolutely justified. America's global status has meandered to a global stain for we as a nation are no longer revered or feared and fear is a great thing to lose but it has been lost by misuse of consequence for red lines of mist instead of steel and lead. Practically nobody believes anything from our POTUS and I fall clearly into that category. I fight daily to push back from the pathway of believing there is a finite agenda to socialize America via destruction or deconstructing of the institutions that have formed the landscape for our nation's stature since our nation's birth and honed via blood in world wars. We as a nation have lost confidence in our leaders for we have lost confidence in ourselves as a nation.
As a nation we do not have strong faith in anything when you assess our world, do we? But let me insert a major point here if I may. Center and central to this chaos is a God that loves us as a people for it is He that created us. God has to be so disappointed to see His creation squander the joy of His most precious gift to each of us which is the gift of life. Working in jail ministry and around thousands of jailed felons each year, you begin to realize that that level of exposure and interaction provides a rich yet dismal insight into the demise of our culture. Men and women with families housed in cages for making conscience choices to hurt and manipulate others is inexcusable and worthy of consequence. But I believe more than ever it is society that has failed these wards of the state for there is the obvious sense among the masses of inmates that life has passed them by, there is no hope and worse than all of that, nobody really cares about them or their lives. How very sad but so very true!
In closing, we ARE a blessed people whether we choose to realize that or accept that. So my words are intended as another dose of encouragement in this tsunami of bad, jaded, juxtapositioned forces where nobody believes anybody be they named Obama, Clinton, Bush or now even Santa Claus for the distrust and disdain has devolved to systemic instability. Nothing seems sacred or stable and with that is ushered into our world and culture doubts about anything and anyone in leadership. That moves into the realm of paranoia. I choose as a man, as a husband and father and grandfather but even more profound than those blessings, as a Christian, to believe in the stability that only God can provide and thus I choose to believe His Word I read daily again in seeking to understand more clearly why things happen as they do.
I hope my words this still dark Saturday morning with much snow still coating the ground leave you with a profound sense of hope for we must first believe in our own hearts we can make this better. Why? We must.
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