We’ve all heard that, or something like it. It probably came from your mom as she watched you swinging from that tree or flying down the street on your bike with your hands proudly waving in the air. Maybe she demanded that you stop immediately. Sometimes parents can be a little too protective, but we grow to understand the motivation. When you got older, the messages may have become more complex, but the underlying meaning was still the same. “Don’t eat too much candy.” “Don’t forget your homework.” “Be home before midnight.” “Stay away from that boy/girl.” Our parents did what they could to help us grow up to be whole and well-adjusted adults and to keep us from the many perils of life in this world until we made it there. Despite their best efforts, some of us don’t quite make it.

I suspect that only one child in the history of humanity accepted His parents’ rules without complaint. We don’t like rules. We don’t like anything that keeps us from having what we want when we want it. Often we rebel and do as we please anyway. When we were children, our parents responded to this rebellion with some form of punishment. In this case the consequence of our action is contrived, but with good reason. If we do not learn that our actions have consequences as children, we will learn it as adults and they will be much more severe. Examine our prison population if you need proof. A majority of the offenders there lacked strong discipline at home.

Why did our parents treat us this way? In most cases, they were not exercising power for its own sake. They did not take pleasure in causing us pain. They did what they did because they loved us. All of the rules, admonishments, lectures, and punishments were intended to shape and protect us. They were saying, “I love you. I want the best for you. Don’t hurt yourself.” Most of us figure that out at some point in our lives. We come to understand that love doesn’t require unrestrained indulgence.

This letter is written to all of us, but in particular to you who for whatever reason may have kept your distance from God or “religion.” Or, maybe you just aren’t comfortable with everything that’s in the Bible. For the purposes of this post I’m going to assume at least an acknowledgement that God exists and has a part in human affairs.

It is no mere accident of language that God defines Himself as our Father. He gives us (though regrettably not including me) children so that we can understand that aspect of His love for us. He sets boundaries for us and gives us instruction to protect and nurture us because He loves us. If you’ve ever read the first few books of the Bible, you saw a whole lot of rules. They are there to help us understand our relationship to a holy God and our abject need for His redemption, but many of them also served to protect His people. In an era when no one could have known about the unseen pathogens that spread sickness and disease, God provided detailed instructions regarding clean and unclean that kept the people as safe as possible. All of the rules were motivated by love.

Though Jesus has made a new and better way (Rom 5:8-9) and we know that salvation cannot be earned (Eph. 28,) He has given us instructions that are for our own good. The ultimate tragedy is to refuse the gift that Jesus offers in Himself. Miss that and nothing else really matters. Yet it remains true that following the principles of living that He laid out for us in the Bible will keep us from much harm. This is the ache that is in my heart when I see people making poor choices. When we share the Gospel message, one of the verses commonly referenced is Romans 6:23, which says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We speak of the final damnation in Hell, but one need not look so far to see the truth in this passage. Most of us will experience the consequences of our sin while we yet live on this earth. This is often true even after we have repented and been forgiven. We may be spared the ultimate consequence, but some things are going to happen just that’s because the way things work. Unless God in his mercy intervenes, we will not be spared earthly repercussions.

Oh loved ones, I wish I could call you by name, but that would not be appropriate here. Choose life! Enough suffering comes to us just because we live in a fallen world. Please do not add to your misery by choosing short term pleasures that will bring you long term pain. Study God’s word and live by it. He makes no promise of freedom from suffering in this life. In fact if you are truly devoted you may find that too brings you grief, but the reward is eternal! Do not turn away from the One who loves you with everything He has. I would see you truly live and not die. In my own poor way I love you, but His love will never fail.

I used to go all over the place on my own when I was younger. In recent years having settled down in one place, made friends, gotten older, and gotten married, I increasingly rely on others to get me where I need to go. This is a wonderful blessing, but it has been bothering me a little lately. I have begun to feel a little trapped. I find myself resentful of the limitations others have seemingly placed on me. The truth is they’ve done nothing but help me. If I feel confined, it is my own fault. I’m forgetting how to manage on my own, and I can’t afford to let that happen. One never knows what the future will hold. I’m grateful for the life I have now, but circumstances change. People move away, get sick, or just don’t’ have time anymore. I need the exercise both physically and mentally of getting out and doing things for myself.

Thus it was that I began my little misadventure yesterday. It doesn’t feel right to label the experience that way. Overall I enjoyed it. I did make my destination and had a great time while there. It was just the traveling that didn’t go so well.

My destination was the Plano chapter of Blind Ambitions Groups. It’s a local support group that meets once a month in various locations around the Dallas area. My wife and I attended the Dallas meeting one time and found out about the Plano group, which we also made just one time. Things never seemed to work out for us to go back. I had looked into going by myself before, but using the DART (local bus service) site to plot the route made it look more difficult to get to than going to the Dallas meeting that is much further away.

I don’t remember what made me try it on Google Maps. It might have been simply the discovery that the service is better than DART’s own for plotting a trip by public transit. I should note that at last check the site had accessibility issues. They have a more accessible version, but it seemed to lack the most helpful features. It could be I didn’t spend enough time looking. I just fall back on ZoomText and use the regular site. Recently they have even included walking directions so that you know how to travel between the bus or train stop and your destination. This was my first time to try them out. I’ll tell more on that shortly.

The trip started out well enough. I got on the same bus to the train station that I take when I go down town for work. The driver saw my white cane and wanted to be sure I knew I didn’t have to pay the full fair. I almost always pay full fair. It is partly because I have never taken the time to go get the ID card that would officially qualify me, and partly because I have never liked to take handouts I don’t really need. It is a reasonable argument that whatever I think about subsidies they do exist and my taxes are paying for them, but it just never feels right. For the same reason I have not tried to get myself onto the paratransit service, for which my qualification is questionable based on my proximity to a bus line.

Things started to go south when I made it to the train station. Literally, I took the south bound train instead of the north bound train I needed to be on. Don’t ask me why. There is no confusion as to where to get on each train, so I can only blame myself for that one. I realized my error as the doors closed behind me and the train pulled away from the station. I had to get off at the next stop and wait for the one going back north, costing me a valuable ten minutes or more. The north bound train was standing room only and the operator did not announce the stops as they are supposed to do when no automated system is in place. Maybe he or she wasn’t aware that the system wasn’t working. I made it to the down town Plano stop without further incident, asking my fellow passengers for help.

Then I needed to get from the station to the church where the meeting was held. That should be no problem, right? I have my trusty Google Maps walking directions. The trouble is that they were a little misleading. They may have been technically accurate, but they left me the impression that one street would curve and become another when in fact what confronted me looked like a standard intersection. Maybe J Avenue ended at a right angle there, but I was confused. In an instant my internal map was shredded and I didn’t know where to go. I knew the general lay of the land and thought I knew where some of the major streets were, but I could not find most of the signs using my monocular. After a bit of wandering around and a conversation with a friendly apartment dweller, I made my way to 15^th street where the church is located and got to the meeting about thirty minutes late.

I thoroughly enjoyed the meeting. Amazingly or maybe not so amazingly listening to how the order process kept being interrupted by random conversation, the planned meal had not been ordered yet. It was a very small group, but I like that. The larger the group the more isolated I feel. I made new friends and got to know another one a little better.

When the meeting was over, I had to get back home. I had no problem getting back to the train station. I got an earlier train than the one I planned for, so when I got off I thought I could walk the approximately two miles from the train station to my house before the next bus would get me there.

I suppose I might have learned from the first experience that relying on what Google told me might not be the best idea, especially since it was starting to get dark. No, how hard can it be? All I had to do was make it down to Arapaho and go over to Custer. Yes, there is a major highway between me and my destination, but I’ve handled that before. I didn’t foresee any major difficulty in doing it last night.

Maybe in the full light of day I might have seen a better way to get across the on and off ramps to Central Expressway and continue my journey home, but what happened instead is that I made it under the bridge and then realized that I was in a very bad position. There is a large area of concrete off the road where I was standing, but in the failing light it was hard to be certain that I wasn’t in the road. Between me and safety was the off ramp to the highway and anyone making that turn would not have been able to see me and stop before hitting me. I could not see around the concrete wall to attempt crossing the exit before a car would come flying down the ramp. Getting into that situation wasn’t easy, and when I went back to see if I could retrace my steps to the bus station I realized I was in no better position on the other side.

After a couple of unnerving false starts, I saw that I was in trouble. I just stood there looking around and hoping some kind soul would rescue me. I started holding my cane up over my head, but I was not in a good place for anyone to stop if they were of a mind to. They probably thought I was begging. I finally managed to swallow my pride, and not knowing what else to do, I called 911. I might have called my wife or other friends in the area, but I didn’t know if I could tell them how to safely get to me. So it was that I finish my trek in a police car. At least I wasn’t in the back. Thank you Sergeant Holly. I don’t think I’ll be trying that again.

To cap off this fine evening and explain what walking on water has to do with anything, I entered my house to find that our water heater began leaking while I was out. Linda had everything in hand, and I was just glad to be safely home. My first thought was to rejoice, because the One who really walks on water has reached out His hand and pulled us up. I’m ready for next time, but I think I’ll wait for the bus.

As I am becoming more involved in politics at a local level, I am faced with questions I have never thought about before. I’ve been following national government for years and have very definite ideas about that. The federal government should be strictly limited by the Constitution. It should do no more and no less. As stated by the Tenth Amendment, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

That grants considerable liberty to state and local government. In fact many would be horrified by the strictly religious nature of many a jurisdiction of the time. This leads to a more philosophical question. What are the reasonable responsibilities of a local government? It has considerable latitude within the framework of state and federal law and would have a lot more if the Constitution were properly observed and its principles carried forward by the states.

A local government must of necessity be concerned with the mechanics of day to day life in a way that higher entities need not be, but I remain convinced that sound principles of government will work at all levels. It should provide protection and keep the peace. It probably must to some extent be involved in the management of local infrastructure, but should stay out of the way as much as possible.

However, I also recognize that this kind of government only works when the people as a whole are of good character. If they refuse to function within the law and with proper respect for those around them, then it becomes necessary to have more authority in the hands of the government. John Adams said of the US Constitution, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” This is why there are some truths we cannot ignore, no matter how offensive they may be to a small segment of the population.

What does this mean in practical terms? I am still left with questions about what the local government should and should not do. I suppose one answer would be whatever the citizens decide that it should do. This is reasonable, but can we reach a point just as we have at the federal level when government has grown beyond the control of its citizens? When this happens, it is our right and responsibility to regain that control. Local municipalities regularly commit acts of tyranny every bit as egregious as those perpetrated at the federal level, less frightening only because they lack the overwhelming power of the Big Brother state. When they act in concert as in the case of New London, Connecticut one begins to lose hope. In this case the High Court ought to have done its job and protected the rights of the individual.

Citizens also may abuse their power. I wish I could find the article I recently read by Thomas Sowell I think explaining how zoning gets misused to assert the rights of one group over the rights of another. I understand the desire to keep some sort of order. Honestly I’m glad the city can keep my neighbor from tearing down his house and replacing it with a porn shop, but the question needs to be asked whether I should have the right to tell him what to do with his property. How is it that my rights are more important than his? Let’s consider something a little less controversial. I recently attended a birthday party at a restaurant featuring a large outdoor deck with a mariachi band and Aztec dancers. The restaurant backed right up to a residential neighborhood. From our seats on the deck we could look right into someone’s pool in their back yard. I suppose if the owner of that house were the partying type he was in a prime location. He got free entertainment every night. I just kept thinking it must be a terrible annoyance to the people who live in that neighborhood to have that kind of noise going on all the time.

I don’t know who came first, but whose rights should the city protect? Whose rights are actually in question? We have defined a lot of things as rights that are not rights at all. There may be a question of what is right in this situation, but not of rights. Should not government be a defender of what is right?

Is it right for a city to force a resident to modify his property because his neighbors don’t like the way it looks? I suppose one may argue that the home owner has a responsibility to maintain the standards of the neighborhood in which he has chosen to live as a courtesy to his neighbors. He may in fact do financial harm to them by lowering the value of their properties. Is it right for them to force him to do so, even if it will cause him harm?

These are some of the questions I ponder as I watch my own city government in action and contemplate my level of participation in it. I have not even touched on the monetary issues. I suspect that if its functions were reduced to those essential to the maintenance of the city and the rest were left to private enterprise, there would be no monetary questions and we would enjoy even better service.

I would like to know what others think about these things. Your comments are welcome on the blog or on my Facebook notes, but if you live in the city of Richardson, Texas, I urge you to respond to this post on the Facebook group page I created to advance the cause of responsible government in our city.

I looked to see when I started this particular Bible study and saw that I posted the reminder to myself to finish it back in November of 2007. I don’t know if I should admit that given the topic. There is one that has been waiting longer. That’s the one on fasting. I’ll be speaking at the end of the month, and this seemed a good time to finish it up unless God redirects me before then. These are the raw note from which I will have to distill something more digestible. I don’t know what prompted me to look up the parable of the talents back then, though I often refer to it. I noticed upon looking up a similar parable in Luke that they were different in interesting ways. That made me curious and this is the result.

The two stories are in Matt 25:14-30 and Luke 19:11-27. On a little side note, be careful of the headings that might be in your Bible. In this case, the one over the Luke passage is particularly misleading. This story is not primarily about money usage, and that is made apparent from the content of verse 11. Headings are great, but they are also a form of commentary inserted by the publisher and should be taken only as guides for finding particular passages and not necessarily accurate descriptions of what they mean.

Comparison and Contrast

Though these stories are similar, they differ in significant ways and so I take them to be told by Jesus on separate occasions. It appears from context that he shared them at the approximate time of His entry into Jerusalem days before the crucifixion. They both share a theme of responsible stewardship while the master is not present. Mathew’s account is part of a series of parables emphasizing preparedness for His return. Luke tells us in 19:11 that Jesus is responding specifically to the belief that His kingdom would be established immediately. The string of parables in Mathew may be a response to a similarly motivated question (Matt 24:3.) Both highlight three slaves, though Luke says that there were ten slaves given one mina each.

Both parables feature a master giving charge of money to his slaves. In Matthew’s account each was given resources according to his ability. Luke’s version gives the same amount to all. In Matthew the two successful slaves both double what they have been given. In Luke they increase ten times and five times respectively.

Luke adds another dimension to his story by recording that the master was a ruling official. Jesus is clearly illustrating His kingdom in this parable. The dissidents who refuse His rule are to be slain before him, just as all who reject Jesus will face a final judgment when He returns.

The accounts of the unproductive slave seem to differ only in minor detail. The major points are consistent between them. They both have an unreasonable fear of the master born of a misunderstanding of his character. They describe him as opportunistic and demanding at best. The description they provide implies evil rather than good (Matt 25:24; Luke 19:21.) They both choose to hide their master’s money instead of using it for the purpose he intended. They attempt to justify their action by means of the accusations cited above.

In both cases the master’s response is also similar. Since both slaves behaved in the same manner, we may apply the judgments of the master in both passages to both slaves. They are described as lazy, wicked, and worthless. It appears that if they had even done the minimum of putting the money into a bank they would have been spared. I will not attempt to address the implied indictment of banks except to point out that God had commanded His people not to charge each other interest (Ex 22:25.) Jesus is speaking to Jewish people here, so this is the context they would have for the reference to banks.

Both slaves have their money taken away and given to the most productive. In Matthew Jesus goes on to say that the worthless slave is to be thrown out into “the outer darkness.” He uses language here common to other references that He makes to Hell. We may safely deduce that the slave of Luke’s story is bound for the same fate.

Conclusions

These are illustrations of principles of the Kingdom of God. They tell us what God is going to do, how we must respond, and what will be the consequences of our response. Jesus is master and king. He gives to us different resources in the form of money, ability, circumstance or anything else that we may use. Some things are given according to our ability to use them. Others are given to everyone equally. We all have access to His love, grace and mercy. All who have believed in the Lord Jesus have been given of His Spirit (1 John 4:13.)

We must now choose what we will do with what we have been given. It was given to us to put to use. It is expected that we will cause it to multiply. Some of us will produce an abundance so great that it seems to others to be too much. Some of us night not be able to produce very much at all. God’s requirement is that we do all that we are able to do. We bring Him joy when we put His gifts to good use, and He will reward us accordingly.

The lazy slaves in these parables are not simply complacent nor are they ignorant of the master’s expectations. They have made a conscious decision not to do what has been asked of them. This becomes clear as they attempt to justify their actions upon the master’s return. Despite the evidence of his goodness they deem him to be unreasonable, demanding, and dishonest; taking what does not belong to him.

We do the same. We redefine God in a manner that permits us to do as we choose. Perverting the good news of His grace we cite our inability to live according to His standard and falsely justify our sin. We take what He has given and hide it in a hole where it can do no good for us or anyone else. We make Him into a fierce and tyrannical being and then act in self-righteous rebellion against our manufactured nemesis. All the while our true enemy laughs, knowing that we have sealed our own doom.

Another thing that strikes me about these parables is that there does not seem to be an expectation that the money is to be returned. Though it clearly belongs to the master and each slave brings it back along with the increase they have made from it, he seems to indicate that it will remain in their charge as if it were their own (Matt 25:28; Luke 19:24.) This exposes another flaw in the thinking of the lazy slaves. The money was given to the slaves for their own benefit, not that of their master. By returning unused what was given to them, they completely missed the master’s intent, which was to bless them, insulting him on several levels.

God loves us. From the beginning he intended to lavish it upon us and that we would in turn give it to each other. This is how we return everything that we have been given. We multiply it by sharing with those around us. When we keep it to ourselves thinking that we need only return it to Him in exchange for salvation, we have become worthless for His purposes.

What follows is hard for us to accept, especially in our culture of increasingly socialist ideas of equality. It even sounds crewel. Take away from the one who has nothing even what he does have and give it to the richest one? How is that justice? This tells us several things. God rewards success. He even rewards extra success with extra blessing. This is true justice, for the one who works hardest deserves reward commensurate with his effort. This does not mean that God in his grace and mercy cannot reward equally someone who though just as committed did not produce as much. See Matthew 20:1-16.

Consider also that none of these slaves had anything before their master entrusted it to them. In the same way we have nothing that God did not give us, therefore it is foolish of us to judge Him for doing as He pleases with that which is His in the first place. The unproductive slave had nothing even when he had the money for two reasons. First, as we have just seen it is his master’s money. Second, he made no use of it. It did him no good because he hid it away and did nothing with it.

This should serve as a strong warning to all of us. We may genuinely cherish what we have, both the tangible and the intangible. Imagine you inherited a collection of rare and beautiful art. You have a family and you have been struggling to make ends meet. This collection will set you for life and allow you to care for your family. Invested wisely the proceeds would benefit generations to come. However, you cannot bear to part with it. You keep it in a closet. Every so often you secretly pull it out and admire it. Maybe you even let your closest friends get a peak at it, but then you hide it away again. Meanwhile your children go hungry. Who among us would do that? Yet that is exactly what we do with a gift that is far more precious than anything man ever created on this earth. We hide it behind the walls of our churches and grudgingly let a few people slip in and have a look. It does not occur to most of us to take it outside and share it. If it does, it’s often someone else’s job. We just keep this life saving gift all to ourselves. If this is our attitude, maybe we need to question whether we really have it at all. It is a gift that is of no value to us or to our Lord if we will not share it.

Maybe you think that you have nothing to offer. In one sense that’s true of all of us. We have nothing that is not from God. If you have received Him, you have the greatest gift of all, and it is your responsibility to share it. God didn’t stop there. I know He has given you other things that he intends for you to share. My wife, Linda, and I attend a church with some people who are barely able to move or to communicate. They have a purpose in God’s kingdom. When I speak in a few weeks I will remind them that one doesn’t need a mouth to pray and that God responds to intercessory prayer. No matter how much or how little we think we have been given, God expects us to multiply it.

This is the text of a flier I received from Bonnie Wells explaining why Richardson residents should vote against the 2010 bond package.  Early voting begins April 26.  The link below will take you to the original MS Word 2003 document, which looks much cleaner than the mess below that results from pasting the text into wordPress.  Note this is revised from the original post.

Vote Against $66 Million

The easy thing to do regarding Richardson’s May 8^th, $66 million bond is to vote yes.  After all, who doesn’t like new things?  The responsible thing is to vote No.

JOIN OTHER RICHARDSON RESIDENTS DESIRING A STRONGER COMMUNITY AND LET OUR CITY LEADERS KNOW THAT WHILE WE LOVE RICHARDSON AND WANT THE ABSOLUTE BEST FOR IT, NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO ASK US TO RAISE OUR PROPERTY TAXES AND PUT OUR FINANCIAL FUTURE IN JEOPARDY WITH THIS UNSTABLE & RISKY ECONOMY.

LET’S COME UP WITH COMMON SENSE SOLUTIONS TO KEEP OUR COMMUNITY STRONG AND VIABLE!

Opposition to the current bond election has surfaced for the following reasons:

1. Affording this bond is based on a stable economy. Unfortunately, recent Dallas County Appraisal District (DCAD) data shows 60% of the homes will have lower appraised values.  Last year, 55% of the homes had reduced values.  The trend is not improving!

Lower appraisals mean lower tax revenues for local taxing entities (City of Richardson, Dallas County, RISD, DCCCD, and Parkland Hospital).

Dallas County is expecting a $56 million shortfall this year.  They are considering a $.02 property tax increase which would result in additional new taxes to you!

As a result of lower appraised values, RISD will have to do one or more of the following: cut services and/or reduce or eliminate the homestead exemption.

2. Voting for this bond means putting a 10.4% city property tax rate increase on you!  What about the elderly on fixed incomes? The City of Richardson is made up of 24% retired on fixed income.  What about the unemployed and the under-employed who are currently suffering in this risky economy?

3.  Protect our AAA Bond Rating. Over the last 15 years, Richardson’s debt has grown considerably.  Currently, it takes $.37 out of every property tax dollar to pay our bond obligations.  This debt will grow to $.43 if this bond passes and will be one of the highest rates in the Metroplex.  Richardson used to be able to boast of having one of the lowest tax rates in the State of Texas– not anymore!  At what rate will Richardson lose its AAA bond rating?   This would have a disastrous affect on the cost of money for the City.

4.  SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN – Moving a fire station from a major road to a secondary road located between Apollo Junior High and crowded ball fields is a disaster waiting to happen.  It’s been said that moving the station south reduces response times to the south.  It does so at the expense of increased response times to the north!  Let’s look for common sense solutions!

5.  LOW TAX RATES MAKE OUR CITY A STRONGER AND MORE DESIRABLE COMMUNITY IN WHICH WE LIVE, WORK & PLAY! Let’s be responsible in Richardson and avoid problems like the massive, out-of-control spending at the Federal level, which will have to be addressed by our children and grandchildren.

For more information, visit http://www.jsn2010.com

Distributed by/for E. A. McDowell

The text that follows came from my journal this morning. I think I have mentioned before that I write it to God. For that reason I’ve taken to calling it a prayer journal, and I suppose it is in that I write it to the Lord, but is had more the feel of a diary than a prayer journal as people familiar with the practice would think of it.

Yesterday I attended two events. The first was a DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) ADA community meeting. The second was a presentation set up by some local Richardson residents to explain why the upcoming bond package for the city is a bad idea. The DART meeting was informative but also disappointing even if it was exactly what I expected. A large portion of the meeting consisted of people with complaints about a service for which they carry roughly 6% of the cost. I suspect if all factors were considered it would be less than that. I do understand their frustration. I have experienced it myself. I’ve written about one of my experiences here recently. They are legion. Nevertheless, it is not reasonable that we should expect to be given more than we can afford. Maybe we would have a better service if they had any real incentive to make it work for us. As it is they are most beholden to those who supply the money.

The second meeting had more to do with what I felt this morning. I’m not going to get into the details here. I will be going over my recording of the session and producing a detailed account of that in a separate post. The irresponsibility, foolishness, and outright corruption in our federal government is no secret to anyone willing to see it. State governments seem to be no better, though Texas is possibly doing better than anyone else. I can’t help thinking that our infrequent legislative sessions might have something to do with that. Not a day goes by that you can’t find something on the news about local shenanigans around the state and the country, but I still liked to think the corrupting influence was somehow not as strong at that level. Last night forever put that notion to rest. In fact, Richardson appears to be one of the most poorly managed cities in the state, at least in the case of financial matters. Though the meeting was not about personalities and the speakers were not locals, I was strongly influenced by what was presented to believe some of the less savory stories about local officials that I have been reading on the Internet for the last couple of years. That’s why I woke up this morning in a bit of a funk and wrote the following journal entry.

I just wanted to vegetate this morning. Yesterday was tiring. It left me feeling something I can’t quite describe but am not unfamiliar with. It’s an ugly combination of sadness and dread with a little hopelessness mixed in. You are the only one who can save us, but You will not do so if we refuse to be saved. It seems we may do just that. I like to think that most people, even though admittedly selfishly motivated, will try to do what is right. We all start out evil, but most of us want to be good, at least as long as it makes us feel good. Is that really true, or is such thinking a product of my own upbringing. Watching children gives the lie to it. If we want to be good, one can argue it is the prompting of Your Holy Spirit and maybe something to do with the fact that we were made for You. One can also argue as many would that such a desire is learned and does not naturally exist. I think there is truth in both points of view. I also know what Your word says. Left to ourselves we will pursue evil. Whether or not we acknowledge You, we will have functional societies only to the degree that we choose to live as You intended.

I should not be so surprised then when I find so many have compromised. I have done so in the past. Even now I constantly examine my actions and motivations suspecting I will not like what I discover. I also recognize some fear. If there are so few who govern faithfully, what hope can we have for a future? It is in times like this that I must look beyond the temporal to the eternal. Whatever course my earthly life may take, I can look forward to a life with You! There is no hardship to compare with the joy of that day when I will be with You. I will not be afraid of the phantom possibilities hiding in the shadows of capitol domes. I will fight to keep them from becoming substantial, but should evil prevail, it will be only for a season.

We have not yet known the kind of persecution and affliction common to much of the world. I think it likely that we will have to see it before we turn back to You. I pray that it is not so, and I ask You once again to show me more specifically what I should be doing. If this is the beginning of the end, I dread the suffering to come, but I delight in Your return. Lord, come quickly!