Real Hope and Change …

I sat in numb disbelief the morning after the election with a cup of coffee in one hand and a remote control where my cigarette used to be, going back and forth between CNN and FOX hoping that someone got it wrong the night before. No one did. Then I thought about Sandi (my wife, not the Hurricane) and how important it was for me to find a way to put down the remote, and pick myself up. Before she left for work, I had told her that I was going to take it easy and maybe go back to bed and get some more sleep. Instead, I went upstairs to my office and started working. And prayed. As the day went on, I started to realize that the good fight is never an easy fight. I know that we are at the tipping point. Identity politics has taken its toll. Blacks, Hispanics, and Single Women voted overwhelmingly for Obama. Self-righteous white liberals too. The youth voted for a Rock star. That is the coalition that beat Romney. Those that needed to believe in Obama doubled down. Sandy (the hurricane, not my wife) interceded and gave them an out. The President whose chief of staff said “we’ve got the votes, f&@# ‘em”, who blamed Bush for 4 years of his failure to bring “hope and change”. This President, who ignored our murdered Ambassador’s pleas for help (and the media who spiked the story), this President who is fiddling on the View, while America is on fire and sailing over the fiscal cliff. This President who pits rich against poor, blacks against whites, haves against have nots. This President got his redemption on Live TV with Chris “I wanna be loved by you” Christie days before the election, and 42% of Americans cited that photo-op as a major influence in why they voted for Obama. Never mind that FEMA is nowhere to be found on Staten Island 10 days later while people are freezing in the dark. Forget reality. That only applies to Katrina and Republican Presidents. These voters needed the Obama of 2008 to believe in and providence provided him for a few days. The empty suit returned. And the empty chair in Staten Island remains.

Something much bigger is going on in America and God knows what it is. But I know that the good fight is not going to be an easy fight. We have Obamacare that is going to bloom over the next 2 years and a debt crisis that is going to wreak havoc with our economy. We have Iran and the Middle East. You name it. We have it coming and coming fast. Our hope for change was derailed on November 6th. But our hope has to be in something bigger than politics. We are in trouble. And the answer is not going to be Romney, anymore than the problem is Obama. The problem, as Shakespeare might have said, is not in our Superstars, it is in ourselves. God said a few thousand years ago, that “if my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves and get on their knees and pray, then I will hear their prayer and heal their land”. I will be the first to admit that I tend toward the human solutions, and less to the heavenly. And I think that is a big part of the problem. We confuse freedom and liberty with our own sovereignty. We are wired to serve by a God who allows us to be free to choose Him, but He doesn’t compel us to do so. He allows us to decide against Him or for Him. We get to vote.

He loves us and wants us to love Him. But He doesn’t force His will on us. He knows whats best for us. He knows that by serving Him, we will be truly free. But we seem to have a better idea when it comes to God. We have our own solutions in mind. In that regard, we are exactly like our enemies on the Left. We are all of us united in that common affliction. And there is no compromise between like minded opponents. Have we not seen the folly of our own efforts? Are we willing to humble ourselves? This is much bigger than we are.

Shouldn’t we start acting like it?