Dishing Up Gruesome Politics

Excuse me, but I’ll pass on this one… and I’ll tell you why, besides the fact that I just don’t have the taste for blood.

In my wrestle to try to become the person I should be, Christlike, rather than my given disposition ( which I will leave to your own wise discernment), I came across a principle. While not ignoring the obvious faults and guilt…. things that are important not to ignore, it gives focus to real solving of problems, especially those of the entrenched and resistant type.

The principle is found in this verse:

What this means is that instead of focusing on what all is wrong, one looks for what is good. One seeks the positive solutions, retrieves the possibilities from a situation.

I do not take this to mean one never finds fault or exposes wrong. I think there is a duty to do that in the correct way. What I think this principle shows us, however, is that our insights into the problems are for the correction and resolving of them. Not for the sheer sport of biting and devouring the enemy. Or for the defensive/offensive, no prisoners and no quarter, destruction of ones fellow man.

And that is what I see even decent people sucked into in the vicious diatribe that is building up to a ‘perfect storm’ in the political discussion. There can be lots of reasons for this happening…. but whatever the reason, I don’t think it will produce the advantage that some hope for, and there are times when the best answer for patently false propaganda is no answer. Just continue to do what needs to be done. Nehemiah was a good example of that. And he also was faced with rebuilding in a seemingly overwheming task.

That does seem the time when the enemies of good purpose become most active. They see their advantage. They hope to discourage the work.

But it is not a time to give in to the distraction; the work should go forward, and it will take all the precious energy one can give to it.

So… give it some thought, my friends. Find the precious, the worthwhile the important, seek it and salvage it from the mire. God speed.

This does not mean ceasefire on the analyzation of what is going very wrong in this country. Bill Whittle is on to something when he describes the ‘tribes’, the chasm in the ideology of our nation with increasing distance between the world views and characters of our citizens.

It’s not really news, but Katrina by the power of its devastatingly widespread impact has uncovered the true motivations of so many. That’s why these are called trials. That is what a trial does, it tests the substance of that tried to show its nature.

We are all being tried, and we are in the midst of it. I can’t say what the outcome is for us…. I do know I tend to be a preservationist and I want to discern the precious and save it – for myself and my posterity. I don’t want to further muddy and trample and it is so easy to do that in the melee and confusion.

What is important to you about this country? About civilization and culture? Focus on saving it and preserving it… and further safeguarding it . And remember, reasonable friends, what hard boots harsh words wear. Use them wisely.