How I long for the days of the test pattern

The mute button on my television remote is almost worn out, and it is the most important among the dozens of functions that this small device performs.  Do we realize how far from any standard of reasonableness we have come in this country?  I speak now of the rush to condemn certain actions.

Bad things happen in this world.  Evil is still at work.  People do terrible things, but does the President of the United States really have to comment on all of them?  Why can’t the people of this nation be outraged enough at a desecration of something sacred without the help of the chief executive.  Instead of counting the minutes between the event and the eventual statement, could we not use our time and efforts to lend some support to the victims.  Perhaps we could have organized protests against the offenders, even if we have yet to find them.  That would at least satisfy our propensity to protest things that portend whatever doomsday the protesters see on the horizon.

Perhaps the real news is not how long was it before the President said something official and talking heads analyzed its sufficiency; but the real news is what is happening to catch the offenders?  Silly me—who wants to follow that story?  Who is helping with restoration?  Sorry, that will not pay the empaneled bank of consultants.  How can the common person who wants to be something other than outraged, actually do something to help?  C’mon, that’s a link on the website, not news. Who is already doing something to help that deserves some recognition?  That surely won’t satisfy our appetite for criticism.

The 24-hour news cycle has created an epidemic of diarrhea of the mouth.  There are no new facts or tangible information going into the system but there is no slowdown on the outward flow of blarney.                                                                                                                        

For now, it’s just the mute button.  My next step will be to identify the sponsors of these broadcasts and boycott their products, and encourage others to do so.  I hope I do not have to write the eulogy for the press that once understood its privileged standing in this nation.  I am optimistic but not blind.  We as a nation crave blame and vitriol more than truth.  The media is simply our drug dealer.

How I long for that bygone day that when there was nothing more of substance to say, you stopped talking.  You stopped talking!  This small nugget of wisdom has surely been expunged from the journalism schools of our land.

Oh, how I long for the days of the test pattern that pronounced with certainty and even a little dignity that programming was completed for this day.

May God have mercy on our judgmental and cynical souls.  Heal us!

240 Years of Experience, Not a single year of wisdom

We have 240 years of experience and not even 1 year of wisdom.  We should be celebrating that our Grand Experiment that we call the United States of America has once again survived.  Power will transition by the vote and civility not by bullets and bayonets; yet so many seek divisiveness even after the election.

Elections and campaigns are tough, demanding much from the candidates and the electorate.  Sometimes the dialogue dies and only demonizing exchanges of vitriol and acrimony remain in the final days before votes are cast.  But in decades past, Americans set aside their pettiness and supported whomever was elected, charging them to do what is best for this great nation.  Our differences could take a back seat to our patriotism and we could give those elected to office a chance to do right by the longstanding process that elected them.

The election just accomplished is not far off from the one on the horizon.  Wisdom beckons us to give those elected a chance to do right by the people and the Constitution and by almighty God.  Can we not open our eyes and see that many have won and lost in the past, to include many contests noted by nobility and others by mud wrestling, but a victor emerged and the country transitioned power.

I have embraced some elected officials, tolerated others, and was just outright unhappy over some elections that didn’t come out according to my view of the best for American; but my loyalty to this great nation demanded that I give those elected a chance to do the best that they could.

That meant praying for them instead of demeaning them.  That meant corresponding with them instead of taking public potshots at them.  That meant exercising wisdom over vitriol and patriotism over selfishness.  I plan to stay that course.  I ask that you join me.

A tide in the affairs of men

In Act IV, Scene 3 of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, there is a dialogue between Brutus and Cassius about whether to attack or defend.  The safe course is to defend and cause the enemy to expend his forces in greater number than the defender.

But the only chance of victory is to advance when everything is in place.  The only chance of achieving great things is not to hesitate when the time is right.  This did not work out for either of the two men conversing in the play or on the actual plains near Philippi.

Octavian, better known in the Christian world as Caesar Augustus, would be the ultimate winner of the 4 men contending to succeed Julius Caesar as Emperor of Rome.  But consider now the words of Brutus as penned by Shakespeare before the battle near Philippi.

Under your pardon. You must note beside,

That we have tried the utmost of our friends,

Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe.

The enemy increaseth every day.

We, at the height, are ready to decline.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat,

And we must take the current when it serves

Or lose our ventures.

The cause failed.  Antony and Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius, then Octavian subsequently defeated Antony.  Causes fail, battles are lost, men die.

But how many have died never trying?  How many people go to their graves having never given a great cause a chance.

Today, we are on the verge of taking a chance.  We have a new president elect.  We have the current establishment pledged to a professional transition.  We have the best opportunity that this nation has had in many decades to bring back what I can only characterize as the pioneer spirit.

We as a nation once had a hardiness to us.  We expected struggles in our lives.  We sought to overcome them.  We moved west to conquer the wilderness.

Now so many seek to see what they can get for nothing.  They pour out vitriol online.  They demonize those who oppose them, which we understand somewhat in the middle of the fight; but now that this round is over, it is time to heal, support the victor for a time, and accomplish what can be done in a political system not designed for efficiency but to make difficult the accumulation of power in a single man or group.

But there is a tide in the affairs of men when things must be accomplished for inaction surrenders to mediocrity.

There is a tide in the affairs of men and high tide is almost here.  Our elected officials who have done little but demean the offices to which they were elected to serve the people, must set aside pettiness and do the work of a statesman.  They must serve those who sent them to represent us all.  They must reject personal interest and embrace the attitude of a servant.

There is a tide in the affairs of men.  Get the protests and bickering out of your system now.  Embrace that change has come.  Consider that most democracies do not survive beyond 200 years.  Understand that the republican nature of our democratic desires keeps us afloat beyond the historical model.  But know that our liberty and our hope diminish in continued acrimony. 

There is a tide in the affairs of men.  It is time to move beyond our state of divisiveness to a time of unity and action. 

To all who have been elected to serve, now is the time to truly serve your nation.  Put aside selfish differences and do what is best for America.  Your children’s children have placed their futures in your hands.

Be faithful to God and this fantastic idea that we know as America.  Do not hesitate to do the right things for this is the right time.

A Christian's Prayer for America

My prayer is for a strong America.

One that is both safe and free.

My prayer is for a land where God

Is truly first in all we see.

My prayer is that the bitter acrimony

And the vitriolic overtones

Depart from every heart among us

And let the fruit of the Spirit be known.

But hate and divisiveness are the order of the day

And they have left no stone unturned

And hope of a revived nation

May not come before Christ’s return.

Oh how I would love to see the judgment

Of all the nations, but most of all

To hear the words “Well done” and “faithful”

When these United States of America are called.

Though I long to see our nation

Strong, and healthy, and on top once again.

It seems that we are headed elsewhere,

Thriving on hate and loving sin.

But God did not promise to preserve this nation,

Though that request I make anew each day.

He has commanded that we love and serve him

And follow Jesus along his way.

Sadly those two paths may be parting

The one of country and the one of God.

‘Tis a sad choice we leave our children

When God and country separately trod.

But to the Christians of this nation

Our call is clarion, crystal, clear.

To be God’s light amidst the darkness

In a land that once we held so dear.

But truly we are far from lucid

To think to be American is to be godly and just

When our words and actions question the motto

That we claim for our own:  “In God we trust.”

But as for me and for my household

We take light over darkness, and choose it again this very day.

And do pray in earnest that our nation will witness

The call to life that says Jesus the only way.

We knew this was coming yet tried to ignore it

For this very land some have shed their own blood.

But when faced with a choice so distinct and so real,

We are loyal to our homeland, to the Kingdom of God.

 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,  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 I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

 2 Chronicles 7:13-14