09 August 2016

Thoughts for a Tuesday Morning

It's another damp and dreary day, and AccuHunch opines that we'll have steady rain this afternoon. In fact, Anchorage set a new record for rainfall, yesterday, at 1.07". For Anchorage, that's a lot. The mountains - just a couple of miles away - are shrouded in low, dark grey clouds.

The local news is still obsessed with the Presidential race ... but I need a breather. Politics is not my preferred medium, for all that I seem to harp on that subject. And in fact, I haven't written nearly as a often about politics, this time 'round. It's just that I see so much that looks/smells/IS wrong, and I want so much for it to be set aright. And frankly, it just leaves me weary.

Others may disagree, but that's okay. It takes all kinds to make America strong, and decent folk can disagree without coming to blows or worse. Those who want to dismantle all that has made us strong, to dismember and erase our history ... our values ... our core principles and beliefs ... can take a hike. There are plenty of nanny-state governments all 'round the world, and they're welcome to visit any of them, and stay there.

My wife has a sign in her office which reads: "You can disagree with me, or you can be right." It's amusing, but more in line with office politics than national values. Just the same, America has traditionally stood for the good in the working family, its belief in hard work, God and country. This country IS exceptional - regardless of what the blowhards on the East Coast think - and there's a reason for that.

Our Founding Fathers believed that we could achieve greatness, given the chance to be free ... to strive for something better ... to improve ourselves and our situations through hard work, courage, and faith in God and ourselves.

While not all of them were Christians, and even those who were had sincere differences, they all recognized that without faith in a divine, omnipotent power, we would have a much-diminished future. They talked about "divine Providence" and even wrote that they recognized, at the end of the extremely trying debate over the language of the Constitution, that the document which was produced was better than any of them expected. James Madison said, "It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it [the Constitution] a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution."

John Adams wrote, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." [emphasis added]

Many have called for the nation to return to God. I believe they're right. Please note that neither they nor I specify which religion, or what shape that "return" should take.

Those of a certain age will remember that Billy Graham used to have a syndicated newspaper column. He answered readers' questions; one was, "Why are there so many denominations?" He replied it's because there are so many different kinds of people. Exactly.

The point is, it won't hurt this nation if a majority of its people decide to be better, moral, and essentially good. It just might help, and I wouldn't mind seeing a degree of small-town civility introduced in larger, more urban settings. Just saying.

I know that politics never sleep, and I'm sure the coming election will intrude even more on our attention ere long. Just the same, it's nice to talk about something else, isn't it?

4 comments:

Rob said...

A very good post, padre. Its just gets very old very fast.

Rev. Paul said...

Thank you, Rob;I appreciate the vote of approval. :)

deb harvey said...

those who undermine 'can take a hike'.
when the termites have never been dealt with, then the undermining of the house is complete. the house is unfit for habitation and will surely fall.
i have been one of those hoping for a 'return' to Constitutional rule.
we have never had perfect rule and personal experience tells me that the justice system, for one, rarely works as it should.
however, the rot is so deep and so pervasive that the structure must be built anew.
if president trump [if he isn't assassinated] would center the capital in kansas or some other central place, shedding as much as possible the fleas and rodents in d.c. there might be a chance for the Constitution to begin to take hold, and grow new, healthy roots.
but the cleansing must not be from the head down only, but from all directions and speedily.
only God can help us.
i don't see most americans turning to Him or even acknowledging Him.
the younger generations have been shorn of all godly principles and i think it may be too late for them- who are a majority- to have any understanding of how they have been deprived by the social engineers.
it is written that the false teacher shall be punished, but so shall his adherents be punished though they have been deceived.
if the social engineers were punished, praise God! but all the generations who have bought into the false teaching shall be punished also.
ergo, the nation shall be punished.
heard a theologian say that nations are punished in the here and now whereas individuals are punished in the hereafter.
this nation is long overdue for punishment, as billy graham pointed out.
just need to make sure that as many of us as possible have oil for our lamps ,for 'the Bridegroom cometh in the midst of the night, and blessed is he whom He shall find watching, but again unworthy is he whom He shall find heedless.'.

Rev. Paul said...

deborah, it's tough to refute the things you say. I personally don't think the Lord is finished with America - not yet - and we have grace for a little while longer. But if the nation doesn't use it to repent & turn back to Him, that grace period will be fairly short.