The Poverty of Politics
Be it left or right, we sit in the center of moral strife, world wars and the constant chatter that we should be dealing with something better than today. But we're not. We're right here, in the United States of Division, contending with talking heads, dealing with ranting posts, fending off rude comments, while sensing there is nothing we can do to repair anything.
Like an ostrich, we try to bury our heads, but we can't. There's nowhere to go. Everyone is opining – the NFL, the radio, the television, the internet. The election of yesteryear is on repeat; it replays day after day. Thanksgiving tables are being overthrown because someone just had to go and bring up politics. We can try to run and hide, but we all know it – we can't. This stuff is far-too-much in our face.
What are we to do?
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This is the question that scares me the most. That keeps me up at night...
What am I, Kelly Balarie, to do?
To fix the stories of sexual abuse, to rectify race relations, to calm animosity, to pacify what feels like hatred, to bridge mile-wide gaps, to reunite our nation, to reinvigorate love...all this feels legions and football lengths beyond me.
Far beyond. . . but what's close is the sense. . . I'm powerless.
Perhaps you feel the same too. Perhaps you feel powerless to fix what's morally, sexually, explicitly and politically wrong.
This feeling induces fear. Fear that what is out of control will continue to spin out of control. Fear that what you can't manage will start to manage you. Fear that what you say will get misinterpreted and categorized in a bad way.
What we can't grip and mold into change, tends to grip our heart with fear.
Louder, the media circus speaks. Bolder, the voices of uncertainty rail. Angrier, the world becomes. Until what point? Explosion.
Where truth becomes deafened by the blaring voices. Until we can't think anymore. Until we become voiceless.
I can't believe this is God's intended way for us. I can't believe He'd call us to get so wrapped up in vitriolic diatribe and heated talking points, that we lose love. This is not the Gospel.
It's a pile of waste. It stinks.
No wonder we all feel so tired, so lonely, so burnt out and so "over-it". Have we ever considered, these roads are not roads of life?
What if we were to actually stay out of the social media dumps, trusting God has a better way?
What if we were actually to allow God to handle what seems too much for us to handle?
What if we actually submitted our will and prayed for God's will to be done?
Imagine what could happen? If we got off our pedestal in order to:
1. Love God with all our heart.
2. Love our neighbor as our self.
It's profound when one really starts to think about it.
We really can trust God. In God, we trust. This is not cliché. It should be personal truth. Jesus is enough. His ways, His truth and His life are everything.
In God, we trust. In God, I trust. Not perfectly, but hopefully, increasingly. I'm still growing. But, this doesn't excuse me from trying. Nor does it permit me to point fingers at others, because it's easier to see their problems than my own. I believe God wants me to address me. Not diversions.
What about you?
There is freedom in this truth: We have no control, but God has all of it.
Here, I am left with one solution: pray.
Pray for our nation. Pray for its people. Pray for your own heart. Pray for faith. Pray for life to abound. Pray for grace. Pray for an understanding of when to speak, step in, pull back, speak truth, give life or discern when, truly, the issue belongs to me.
Clearly, we don't have all the answers, but God does.
