Fretting and Getting
Where are we Christian parents and educators in this tumultuous 2011? It's easy to remember times when the world seemed to be crumbling somehow, somewhere. It's hard to remember a time when it seemed to be crumbling on every front.
That's what it seems to be doing right now--both abroad and at home. It's hard not to get discouraged.
But as members of Christ's church triumphant, we must first "get" something else. It's called faith. And sometimes (I speak confessionally), we don't get it.
Our faith in Christ is faith in the Sovereign Creator of the universe. He knows what's going on in detail. That's reassuring, since he is also in charge of what's going on in detail. Moammar Gadhafi is not in charge. Osama bin Laden is not in charge. Stephen Lerner is not in charge. Sometimes our own focus on current events can get a bit foggy on that point.
In case that last name rings no bells for you, Stephen Lerner is a former leader in the radical SEIU (Service Employees International Union), a repeated White House visitor, and a compadre of Patrick Gaspard, President Obama's White House political advisor until recently. He is now executive director of the DNC.
Mr. Gaspard is also a former executive of the SEIU.
Why all this profile stuff? Perhaps you listened Mr. Lerner's strategy speech to a recent meeting of American Marxist revolutionaries (published by The Blaze online). He laid out a plan to, in his words, "inspire a much bigger movement about redistributing wealth and power in the country." He spelled out a strategy of "civil disobedience," "disruption," and "mobilization" to "destabilize," to "cause a new financial crisis," to "bring down the stock market." The goal? To crash the U.S. economy and "build something new."
Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz last week officially asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate "Mr. Lerner's terrorist plans." But even if such an investigation should occur, the startling signs of "our way of life" crumbling remain. I hear gloom-and-doom warnings about that every day from Christians.
I go to bed pretty uneasy about these things too. Like I said, our faith can be weak. But wait. When the Bible speaks of weak faith, it's talking about Christians who are oppressed with legalism--like the guy who eats only vegetables (Romans 145:2) when he could be enjoying God's bounty (including steaks and BLTs).
Our bigger faith problem has to do with what Jesus referred to as "little faith." I guess that's a lot like weak faith. But it implies something far more serious--faith that's little, not because it's weak (misguided) but because it's not fully resting in God. That, of course, is what sin does to all of us. But, as our pastor says, we who are being sanctified in Christ are (or should be) less successful at sinning than we used to be.
Will Mr. Lerner and his influential comrades succeed in overthrowing our government or in bringing an end to capitalism? I believe we should do our best to make sure they do not. But what I believe is more important, we should remind ourselves and our fellow believers--every day--that no terrorist of any kind is sovereign and that we ourselves are not sovereign either.
Our faith is not our ultimate hope. God Almighty is our ultimate hope, and our faith is nothing unless it rests in him. That's what I mean when I say we sometimes don't "get" it. Crumble, crumble. Fret, fret.
Time for good news. God has promised never to leave us or forsake us. And he has promised that the world's evil crumblers will ultimately fail. So, he tells us over and over in Psalm 37, "do not fret." That doesn't mean go numb. It means do with hope the good work we are called to do.
"I have told you these things," Jesus assures us in John 16:33, "so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
-- Norm Bomer
No comments:
Post a Comment