THINKING ABOUT 2008
Would you agree that our election was THE story of 2008? This fall Mike and I had that bronchitis where your throat hurts like a big dog and you lose your voice. Similarly, since November 4th we feel like we've lost our voice. We're not whining because our party lost and we want to take our toys and go home. We're scared because our country reached for "pie in the sky" without connecting any dots. When did America quit thinking?

The country seems to be on a crazy cycle with all the thought process sucked out. You know that's true if you've seen Jay Leno go out on the street and ask the simplest questions. People are busy emoting rather than deliberating. "How does that make you feel?" they wonder. Well, we feel like hollering "use your head!" When Grandmother said someone didn't have sense to come in out of the rain, she was talking about folks who lacked plain ole good judgment. Onto that palette, Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber "popped" like shining stars.

Miss Scarlett may have gotten away with "thinking about it tomorrow", but sometimes you HAVE to think responsibly...and on the spot. Take that spot in a New Jersey WalMart, where the crowd stomped an employee to death. Was that not crazy, criminal mindlessness? Then there's a new song out this month called "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow". A couple of governors from New York and Illinois danced like there was no tomorrow. Those boys embodied "to thine own self be true"; accountability must have come like a bolt out of the blue. It's hard to feel sorry for either one, but how devastating and humiliating for their families. Who could forget Mrs. Elliott Spitzer's ashen face at his press conference? Unfortunately, it's not news that power or sex or greed have often trumped logic. But this year we're talking about something else...two HUGE examples of rational disconnect.

First, some folks apparently thought you could lend money to people who couldn't afford it and somehow they could pay it back. Then compounding that, just keep rolling those bad debts into big wads of debt and one day it will either be all better...or at least it will be someone else's problem down the line. We seem to be down the line now, and the solution is to just print more money? This is nuts! Doesn't anyone know there's a day of reckoning?

Secondly, the big three carmakers are paying wazoo salaries to CEOs. Certainly there's nothing wrong with paying well, except they are paid millions to lose billions. And CEO pay is not the only problem; unions pushed contracts that are impossible. Who actually thought they could pay Saturn workers in the Columbia, TN plant for a whole year NOT to work? How many generations do we need to go backward to find some common sense people who would have KNOWN that dog wouldn't hunt?

We need to be saved. Saved from leaders who turn out to be profiteers, making decisions based solely on their gain...saved from corporate's greedy who show no regard for faithful employees' pensionless future...and saved from Democratic Santas with faux compassion who legislated economic collapse and now turn around and point to Wall Street.

This IS a wonderful life, but we sure need more George Baileys. Wonder if even George's angel, Clarence Odbody, could tackle our complicated dilemma? These days the non-thinkers and corrupt thinkers seem to have outnumbered the rest of us. We need a man to step up to the plate and "do the right thing"...a patriotic leader who can problem solve and do it with good judgment and common sense.

God grant us one.

"'Come now, and let us reason together' says the Lord." Isaiah 1:18

BARACK OBAMA

Seems even-tempered...certainly not the temperament of a radical. Seems sophisticated...understanding global nuances. Seems accomplished...a Harvard lawyer and United States Senator.  Seems to call for change...at just a glance he embodies change.  So what's all this about obamanation?  

Breathe in.  Get a whiff of The Wizard of Oz.  Remember how the front didn't match what was behind the curtain?

See with pragmatic eyes.  "Change" will come out of Chicago's corruption? See with spiritual eyes.  He found Christ where?  He took his little girls where?  See with eyes researching the records.  Senator Obama was unbridled in his votes for all abortions, even the worst type.  No one dared go that far left...no one but Barack Obama.

Now in our country we have reached for a man because he is black and because he offers hope. Those in the womb might argue about the hope part.  We have logged in a racial vote...to show we are not racist.  We have asked for a man whose "pro-choice" vote is an abomination to our Maker.

When theocratic Israel demanded a king, God gave them what they wanted.  Ah, the heady empowerment of free will.  Now we have asked for and received our choice.  But perhaps you are saying..."but I didn't vote for him!"  Either way, we are in this together.

At Christmas, no one wants doom and gloom.  But this is no ordinary year and we need to be on our knees praying for this man from a very bumpy upbringing who has landed at the top with quite a lapful.  If Scripture is right, the king's heart is in Jehovah's hands.  And like water, Jehovah God can turn it wherever He wants.  We need to be begging the Lord to change the heart of this man...to give favor to whatever godly voice might be available to our President-elect's ear...and to have mercy on our country.

"if My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land."  2 Chronicles 7:14

WEANED ON HATE

It breaks my heart to see videos of children in Muslim countries who are brought up in schools where all they hear are untruths about Westerners.  They are taught to hate something that they really know very little about.  My frustration for them is that I wonder how they can ever learn to evaluate if all they hear is one side.  And besides, how hard is it to hate?  Doesn't hating come a lot easier than loving?  The extreme madrasahs are factories for little haters, ripe for the next escalation.

Surprisingly, here at home we have experienced in the last eight years a similar phenomenon.  There are several "schools" who instruct in our country...our liberal universities and politicians, but mostly, the media.  Collectively they flood many hateful untruths about our president and our country.  The things they say are spoken and repeated and repeated until they seem like fact.  Charles Krauthammer calls this hostility "Bush Derangement Syndrome".  President Bush does not defend himself against the defamation. Perhaps it is his idea that such nonsense should not be dignified with an answer.  I've learned a lot about grace under fire from George Bush.  He may not have done everything I wanted the president to do...but when all is said and done, he led our country through a crunching time that could have sucked America down the drain.  He was strong on his watch.  He kept us safe.

And what about the haters?  They seem victorious because they took W's approval numbers to single digits.  Their spew, which went largely unchallenged, caused people who do not research and think critically...to hate and then hate some more.  It is pure evil to fan that flame.  Now these Bush-haters all but foam at the mouth as they deride a good man.  We have to listen as everything (including the weather) is blamed on him.  Unfortunately, their lack of honest discourse and civility has damaged the office of the presidency.

But the presidency is not the only thing that has suffered under these libels.  Just as the little Muslim children are affected and their life's course determined by their hatred...so hate will eat away the insides of an American who sets his/her heart against another person and willfully chooses to enjoy hating and destroying.  President Bush will soon be back in Texas with his wife who adores him.  His career took him to the pinnacle of power and service.  George Bush will have the confidence that he has pleased the Lord to the best of his ability.  He can smile at the future.

What will the haters do with their well-oiled fountain of venom?

"'Let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,'  declares the Lord."  Zechariah 8:17