One Thousand Blessings...and Counting - Election Day

One Thousand Blessings...and Counting

Election Day

November 7, 2016

We started a new sermon series on gratitude and thanksgiving yesterday.  A challenge was issued to begin keeping a daily gratitude journal.  We are calling them ALttitude journals - borrowing from Zig Ziglar:

"Your attitude, not your aptitude, determines your altitude."

Gratitude to one another is a very good thing, but gratitude toward God is the best of all things.  I don't think God gets enough thanks for what He does.  When we demonstrate gratitude toward God the Bible talks about running and not growing weary, rising up on wings like eagles, and Paul makes the observation that being grateful to God will provide the following, "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  I don't know about you, but I really like that.  It would hurt me to be more grateful, to spend five minutes a day recording my gratitude in a journal.  Besides, I felt obligated since I preached the sermon.  So, thus began the process of looking for blessings to be thankful about.  Unfortunately, I watched 60 Minutes last night.  I need to start buying cheap sermons off the web.

The segment on the Zika virus was bad enough, but CBS aired a segment on the election.  I knew that the people I know are upset about the election this year.  However, election coverage shows a lot of folks at the campaigns.  I figured maybe folks were seeing something I was missing.  Turns out that both campaigns must be busing in the same crowd to each city they visit (now THAT is an exaggeration - made for effect, meant to be funny - don't take it personally).  CBS brought in Frank Luntz and he brought in a focus group on the election.  It seems 82% of the population isn't voting FOR a candidate.  Rather, they are voting AGAINST a candidate.  And here I thought I was an oddball (probably am).  The worst part was how the folks within the focus group began to treat one another.  Luntz was visibly disturbed by what he saw.  Americans have at least a dislike for one candidate, but they despise the other.  I've already voted.  I confess that my heart is not in a good place about how I feel about one particular candidate.  I cannot even describe why I have these feelings because the description would expose who that individual's identity.  That, in itself is not an issue.  The greater issue is how this election has divided this nation.  Americans not only hate the candidate they oppose, we have begun hating those who vote for them.  What has happened?  

How do you write a praise about that?

And then it dawned upon me..there is praise in the anger.  Let me quickly add that the sun should not go down on our anger, nor should we sin in our anger.

I toyed with the notion that this is still the greatest nation in the world and that we still have free elections.  However, that seems trite, and unfortunately unbelievable to a skeptical public.  Many today believe our elections are at the very least manipulated, if not completely stolen.

No, I kept returning to the idea that the anger is a good sign.  We are angry because we remember a different time.  And if too young to possess those memories, most of us have at least heard of those bygone days.  We do remember leaders who were heroes.  Imperfect yes, but at least we had choices who were folks we could admire rather than someone resembling a grotesque character from a bad graphic novel.  We remember too, a nation unified, proud, confident and a beacon of light in a dark world.  We remember the United States as the go to place for the broken, the hopeless, the persecuted and the visionary.  We are, after all, the nation of immigrants.  We still have that memory, and others.  We are angry because we feel that the land of our fond memories has been stolen by the corrupt, the ruling class, the career politicians, the self-interest groups, the media and countless others to blame.  I believe that to be good news.  This nation began because others had the same sort of frustration and anger.  It's good news because they were smart enough to devise a system providing for a peaceable solution if ever those frustrations were again to rise.  We can vote.  More importantly, we can care once again.  Our predicament can be blamed on the others listed, but the blame also resides in ourselves.  we can care about this country like our predecessors once did.  The only reason career politicians got away with things was because so many of us stopped caring, stopped watching and kept on playing.  I'm thankful for how bad things have become because folks are angry and perhaps, just perhaps we will care enough to make a change.

I'm thankful for another reason.  For me - profound.  Only believers understand this.  I'm thankful because all this is just temporary drama in my mindset.  I have been disappointed with Presidents, and choices for President, for quite a few years.  I have learned to be content - no matter the circumstance.  It matters who is President.  What matters most is that no matter who is President - Jesus is still King.