The NOT post-racial Presidency

So much for "the first post-racial President in our history." Sounded hopeful, sort of like "hope and change" and "change we can believe in."  This Presidency certainly will not be described as post-racial by any perspective of history. 

 Not because it couldn't have been.

You see, the "we think it's cool" crowd doomed that possibility almost from that night in 2008, at Chicago, when a sea of well-wishers gathered to celebrate this President's first election. That certainly was a moment in history. But it didn't produce a post-racial result. You see, from that "moment" almost anyone who dared question this President's intelligence, fitness for office, ability to lead or wisdom in approaching the challenges facing the nation--has been tarred as a racist puppet of the Aryan Nation.

As I reflect back, all Presidents during my lifetime have been the subject of a national pastime geared toward laughing at their quirks, questioning their intelligence, reviling their politics and counting the days till the next election cycle. In this modern era, virtually nothing has been out of bounds. Now, let me state for the record, I don't believe what we subject our Presidents to is good for the nation; that said, it's become the norm, not the exception. It's mean, but it's not racist.

So, when this President stepped up to become the focus of the electorates ire, it's decried as racism. That is non-sense. Are there racists in America? Certainly. Is some the what we hear about this President racist? Certainly...just like some of what we heard about George Bush was hate-speech.

This is America. We need to be able to speak our minds, thoughtful or otherwise, because that's a treasured right here. It's part of what makes us, us. My concern as we turn the corner to the home stretch in this 2016 Presidential election cycle, is that we'll forget who we are and what makes this nation great. I pray for a civil discourse. But I also expect it to be a spirited and opinionated discourse, as it should be. "Ideas" do that to people. People must feel safe stating what they think about the candidates and believe to be the best course for the nation...regardless of their agenda.

We make judgments about the ideas placed before us by politicians and the people that support them; then, we VOTE!  This election cycle should be no different than those that came before it...but as we're seeing almost every night on our favorite news cast, some seek to prevent this process from playing out that way.

It appears that the election to determine the next President will be characterized by class warfare, race-baiting, vitriol, violence and a "take no prisoners" commitment to win at any cost. Now is the time to brace for just such an election. 

Prepare now to be driven to a decision by the facts and your conviction about what you believe is the best course for our nation going forward. How can one do that?

1. Critically consider your values and then ask, which set of ideas best represent those values. 
2. Become thoroughly familiar with who the candidates really are...not who they, or their handlers, simply say they are.
3. Go deeper than the talking points. Think through policy and how it effects the nation going forward.
4. Engage big ideas. Read, study, pray and reflect on the politics of the 21st century, then measure the ideas of those asking for your vote against your own understanding and perspective, born from that "due diligence."
5. Refuse to be an ideologue.
6. Measure twice and cut once.
7. Seek guidance from God; Seek His agenda. Be willing to embrace it.
8. Exercise your right, privilege and responsibility to vote.

We missed an opportunity to get it right under the leadership of the POTUS Obama, and, frankly, one has to wonder, what could have been?

The good news...while we don't always get it right the first time, Americans keep working at it until we do. No, this isn't the first post-racial Presidency, but it's taken us one step closer to that vision of Dr. Martin Luther King.  Sweet Dream.

bN tGit

It's Enough.

Difficult days.
News?  Conflict, chaos.
Too much dissonanace.
His Grace. Redemption.
His promise.  Hope.

His character. Strength.

He is able.
I am His.

It's enough.

bN tGit

Wrong War.

Our culture is changing--devolving.  It seems a day does not pass that we don't hear about the latest decent into the abyss on the Evening news. Many People of faith have dutifully written their Senators and Representative demanding action.  They are good culture-warriors.  I have a problem with this.  The "culture war" is the wrong campaign.  It's a battle for minds.  People of faith are called to battle for hearts.  Little wonder minds have become utterly corrupt.  

In this process, we see how people of faith have been seduced too.  The culture war is self-serving.  It's an attempt to preserve and re-create a world less hostile, less chaotic, less wrong-headed for our benefit.  It's about preserving our values, protecting our children, maintaining equilibrium and economy so we can live out our god-informed vision of what our lives should be like.  This is normal; it's also carnal...it's the way most humans think and act.

That's not the vision people of faith have been called to by God. We have been called to justice, to selfless living, to compassionate action; to loving the unreached citizens of this world like God does.  When people of faith do that, people with no hope notice. They understand that this kind of concern is counter-intuitive.  It's not the way normal people live; they want to know "why?"   

Peter's first letter to the church contains instruction for us... 
"...but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect..." 1 Peter 3.15  ESV

We win the world one heart at a time gently, respectfully.  It can't be done with legislation.  We don't win them with constitutional amendments.  The silver bullet isn't packing the courts with the "right kind of thinkers."  It's done by living alongside people who aren't like children of the King, who don't share His values and act in ways that reflect how radically confused people without effective faith are.

When people of faith insert themselves into culture in a transformative way hearts begin to change.  When hearts begin to change, minds begin to change.  When hearts and minds begin to change, culture begins to change.  When people with no hope begin to see faith, hope and love in their neighborhoods, schools, workplaces--they pay attention!  They realize they are thirsty, hungry and without hope. They realize there's more, and they want to know where they can embrace it...one heart at a time.

For too many people of faith, living this way just isn't something we want to do.  We're more comfortable on church properties that create space between the world without effective faith and our world of grace.  We shield our children from the world without effective faith in ways that create fear and contempt in their hearts. We forget what life without grace is like, and we become entrenched in a battle for minds using the least effective means available to us--the wisdom and power of the world system.  

Little wonder we seem befuddled, put-off by what Jesus described as "sheep without a shepherd."  They aren't like us, they don't think or act like us.  They are driven by differnt values, often by different passions.  Yet, they carry the same godly imprint on their souls that people of faith reflect...we are all created in His image.  We are all loved with an unconditional love.  We all have access the same unmerited overflow of His grace.  We are all sinners in need of a Savior.  

These lost sheep, souls, are not the enemy.  They are victims in Satan's attempt to foil the purpose of God in the redemption of all people.  That purpose begins with a battle for hearts...and minds will follow.  We win hearts when in the power of the Spirit we come along side these unlovely people and their messy lives and seek to serve them in compassion, with sacrifice through love;  in that process God prepares a moment--empowers us to speak truth, and lives are transformed by the Risen Savior.

One heart, one mind; gently, respectfully.  POWERFULLY.

Let it be.

bN tGit

If my people.

Many people of faith (I've taken my shots) are piling on this Administration, decrying its polices, arrogance and penchant for demagoguery.   

     

But, let's face the the hard truth: Government shares only part of the responsibilty for the troubled state of our Nation.  The failure of the Church to be the Church has accelerated our decline. The light from "The City set on a hill" cannot penetrate the darkness because The City too often has become an anemic, self-indulgent, impotent place--flirting with priorities, forms and dogma that have no genesis in God's Word.

     

The Church has embraced popular culture and been absorbed by a pursuit of a reworked (secularized), dumbed-down (sequestered) version of the "abundant" life; by a quest for "relevance" in the name of Christ.  She has a vital role in culture: to be the watcher on the wall, the harbinger of Good News; a conduit for God's love given without regard for conditions or behavioral change. instead, she slumbers, points her finger at others and cries "foul."  The Church need not quest for relevance; when she behaves as The Church, she is relevant.  Instead...  

    

Apathy, division and moral compromise have ravaged the fruit of the Spirit.

Reaching out with the Good News has become an unfunded mandate.

Codependence has swallowed up courageous leadership.  

Sound teaching has been replaced by pop pyschology.

Relevance has pushed reality to the back of the bus. 

Sacrifice is considered a synonym for weakness. 

Integrity is open to interpretation.

Godliness just isn't hip.

         

This isn't the first time the people of God have lost their moral and spiritual compass... 

      

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land."   2 Chronicles 7.14   

      

It ended badly for Israel.  But, it need not end badly for this nation; there is hope.

Hope springs from humility 

Humility leads to repentance 

Repentance produces healing

   

 This, is change we can believe in. It starts in Christ's church.  It includes me...and you.

bN tGit

Grace. Amazing.

I need not run from a Christ-Centered world view to embrace all people with compassion and love. 

Being passionately concerned for others who do not "look, act or think" like me, while refusing to embrace their values, isn't hateful. It is the ultimate expression of Christ-like love. Reaching out in spite of a great divide, seeking to build bridges. 

Amazing grace. 

bN tGit

Death by a Thousand Cuts.

Culture in America is on an inverted spiral out of control--devolution. "Civil rights" have replaced "the moral imperative" as the final arbitrator in America. We've come to embrace the idea it's (here's the irony) "immoral" to deny the rights of individuals to act as they see fit as long as "no one is hurt in the process." But this rubric fails to understand that morality isn't defined as just "the absence of a victim." Debased behavior, wether it's Wall Street, the Silver Screen, Congress, Education, Church or at home diminishes the entire culture and has set in motion a "death by a thousand cuts" cultural bleed-out.

In the name of freedom we have acted in ways that have produced unintended consequences. We have come to believe that because we have the protection under law to do something, produce something, say something--we can. The problem is that liberty in that context is license--and license leads, inevitably, to lawlessness. One of the most important lessons I learned at home was this; just because I CAN do something, doesn't not mean I SHOULD do it.

If we as a culture, can get back to this simple lesson and apply it with consistency to the way we LIVE our lives, run our companies, invest our money, lead our homes, churches, communities and our nation, THEN I believe we will have taken a FIRST-STEP toward restoring sanity to our decision making process and rebuilding the ramparts that protect our culture from evil and devolution toward certain destruction.

But mark this, healing our culture must ultimately address our spiritual need. The Older Testament prophet Micah lived in a truly evil world. The theme of his prophetic letter stresses the integral relationship between true spirituality and righteous conduct. Toward the end of his letter he turns to an axiomatic concern: Micah 6.6 "...with what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high?" In today's vernacular it might sound something like this..."What kind of life will reflect and infuse truth in a world whose reality is based solely on pragmatism, pleasure at any price; driven by relativism?" He reveals that answer to us in chapter 6, verse 8...

"He has showed you O man, what is good. To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."   Micah 6.8

Friends, it's not a fiscal cliff we see looming on the horizon. 

 bN tGit

A gray cloudy day...

Lake slips into a mist of gray
Horizon broken by trees stripped by Fall, bracing for winter.
Seasons change, storms pass.

A metaphor for life?
Fifty shades of gray, stripped by storms bracing for loss.
Where is hope?

A Blue Herron floats over the water.
The Spirit floats over the chaos of life.
Seasons change, storms pass.

Flashes of color break through the mist.
God--not lost in the gray.
There is Hope.

bN tGit

A new song.

Spring is off to a very slow start, even for Northern Indiana.

Friday morning I began to notice the birds vocalizing--a song to the human ear.  I thought it was curious given the wind, rain, and biting cold we encountered that morning.  But there they were, intent on doing what birds do.  They sang, I groused (pun intended).

Their internal calendar told the birds "it's Spring." They sing with confidence because they know, intuitively, that regardless of what the weather may be like today, it's Spring, and it's going to feel like Spring sooner than later.

It occurred to me this morning, off to another blustery start, as I listened to them sing outside my window, I can do that too.  I know my life is "hidden with Christ in God," and even though it doesn't feel like that today, it will again, sooner than later.

Colossians 3.2-4 "Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."

He put a new song in my heart.  "Its Friday, but Sunday's comin'."

Sing. 



bN tGit

Two Camps, Big Problem

The confessing church has aligned itself into two camps.  This division has created a wall that impacts Christ's church in a profoundly negative way.  The challenge Believers face is to embrace both the social justice and eschatological mandates of the Gospel; it isn't either/or, it's both/and.

The irony is that the same end, passion for people who have become as Jesus described “sheep without a shepherd”, drives both “camps;” yet we (all of us) "preach" a different gospel when we fail to apply the whole counsel of God to our praxis.  It has stripped the church of its relevance on one hand, and spiritual power on the other--leaving only a shell for those "asking, seeking, and knocking" to behold. 

The good news is that God isn't marginalized by our failure to embrace the whole Gospel. His love continues to find a way. If only we who have confessed Christ and embraced effective faith could come together, face the harsh reality that WE are the problem, and seek God's face, healing would come; that's the promise of 2 Chronicles 7.14... 

"...If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land." 

May His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

bN tGit

We will Rise.

Several years ago I received a note from a good friend..."my dad's cancer is progressing. His time here is probably down to days..."  When I read those words I was transported back to the last time I was with his dad.  I was saddened by this news, concerned for the grief this final act of life would introduce to my friend and his family...and not.

My friend's father did lose his life; but not once was he in danger of losing his hope: the certain promise that he, as a believer in Jesus Christ, would finally be transported into the presence of His Lord and Savior, there to enjoy life as HE designed it to be.

Life is hard, then we die.   We will all lose our lives, but we need not lose our hope.

Praise God for the hope we have in Christ, and the healing death brings for those who have embraced Christ through effective saving faith.  For these death need not be something to be feared; it is a gracious provision that carries us back into a "face to face" real-time relationship with God. Without death, we become eternal beings, like Lucifer and the legion of angels which were cast out of heaven because of their rebellion...eternally separated from God, without hope of redemption.

Death became the modality that God uses to foil Satan's attempt to co-opt God's crowning creative act, the human race.  So then, death is the definitive "check-mate" and demonstrates God's mastery; always steps ahead of evil and the chaos of sin. Genesis 3 describes the event that initiated the rebellion of Adam and Eve to sin and it's necessary result, death; it's also here that we learn that death is part of God's bigger plan for hope and the redemption of human-kind.

The rest, is history, 1 John 4.9,10...

"God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son 

into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 

10  This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us 

and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins."

We know that love is a four letter word, spelled H-O-P-E; more importantly, we know that death simply marks the first day of the rest of our lives, 2 Corinthians 4.16-18...

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet 

inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary 

troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 

18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, 

since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

We will rise, thanks be to God.  It's a GRACE day.

bN tGit