A Wonderful Thought for Today

 Brian Parsons has piece at the American Thinker designed to remind us that no matter what our current issues and problems, God is in control. Nothing happens that God does not allow, and which He has not already figured into His plan. You can find the article at The One With the Government On His Shoulders. I must confess that I am one who sees the many problems our nation has, our Church has, and there is often a feeling that things could not get worse. But of course, many people throughout history would gladly trade places with us.

We often treat life like a destination and not a process. We live life as though we will have arrived at some point, and when we do, we can finally let down our guard and go into auto-pilot. We will finally have the American dream: a spouse, kids, a home, and a white picket fence. Or perhaps once we've reached this point, we will have the career advancement of our dreams. Perhaps we will reach the pinnacle of our careers, retire early, and travel the world. Life is not a destination, but a process.

The world would like to convince us that our circumstances are unique, and uniquely heinous. Unscrupulous politicians and policies create unpleasant circumstances from which we'd prefer to depart sooner than later. I'm reminded that a short three years ago, we were experiencing record abundance and progress, and then we were handed a global pandemic. The truth is that though the nature of the pandemic was unique and suspect, it doesn't begin to stack up in terms of its effect on the history of the globe. We were fortunate in that, technologically, we were positioned to rapidly deploy treatment and care for the infirm. We were fortunate to be able to shift our duties to remote work and learning in many cases.

...snip...

In the Old Testament Book of Samuel, the people of Israel, displeased with the self-enriching policies of Samuel's sons, begged Samuel for a king. They did so because they grew envious of surrounding kingdoms and wanted a single authority who agreed with them to implement their desired policy prescriptions. God warned them that this would subject them to the whims of a singular authority who would demand a portion of their labor and their sons and daughters at his whim. They did not listen.

Much like ancient Israel, we, too, demand concentrated authority that will do our bidding, and we can finally arrive at our desired utopia. This is because it is much easier to persuade a singular authoritarian who thinks as we do than to go through democratic processes, stay involved within our communities, and rule from underneath as our Constitution prescribes. We treat our politics as a destination and not a process.

As we approach the anniversary of our Lord's birth it may be useful to remember that we are not really in control, that we are merely priviledged to live for a while in His creation. We Christians have the added priviledge of being sons and daughters of the Almighty by adoption. What a wonderful thought indeed.