So, I usually try to keep this blog pretty light, friendly, just a bit of an update here and there about what we've been up to for everybody who doesn't get to see us that often. (And those who do who want to see pictures of themselves.) And I know both Andy and I are on here so it looks like I'm speaking for us both... but this time it's just me, Jozi, the soapboxer who just can't keep my mouth (keyboard) shut.
Today is January 20, and about nine hours ago we inaugurated our new President. I am not going to offer my opinion on this event or this person, because, as you will see, my opinion matters little. What I just have to put out there is my take on how rockstar this whole campaign, election, and inauguration have become. I was trying the other day to remember the last time I saw something in the US as popular as our new President. I thought of movies, movie stars, rock stars, books, events, anything I could think of that brought the country to the near hysterical levels it is now reaching. And honestly, I couldn't come up with anything. Never have I seen "an entire country, nay, an entire world" (I'm quoting an online newscast) become so wrapped up in a single event or person. The closest I can come up with are pictures in my memory of, say, communist or dictatorial countries that are required to have statues and images of their beloved leader scattered at regular intervals throughout their soil. Think I'm exaggerating? Well, think of the last time you saw the American flag posted in some sort of venerable manner. Was it alone? The iconic image of America, freedom, dreams, success... or was someone's face superimposed upon it? Yeah, that's what I thought. I've seen more pictures of our new President's face on postcards, billboards, bumper stickers, and posters than I have seen actual American flags displayed throughout the streets I travel and live on. (Yes, I realize that every time I see the President's "logo" I am seeing a "flag" as well... but that so doesn't count. It's like calling fat-free chocolate a tasty treat. Just doesn't work for me.)
Now, you might think that I'm bashing the President. I'm not. I am the least political person you've ever met... honestly, I'm so unpolitical it's definitely into the "lazy citizen" category. (I have my reasons.) What I am commenting on is our reaction to our new President. I mean, I understand that many people feel we've had a pretty sour eight years. So therefore we want change. We want answers. We want a difference. We want a fix. We want salvation. We want to be saved from this horror that we've decided the last eight years were. Save us from our recession, our war, our educational system, our borders, our ideals, ourselves! Finally, the Savior has arrived!
Wow. Poor President. You know, that's a pretty tall order. I don't know of any human alive who can do that. Take this giant mess that people have created, built up, slept in, and buried themselves in, and snap his fingers and make it go away? There is no way that one man can solve the problems of an entire world's creating. But that's what we're asking him to do.
And yet, someone has already done that. We've been saved already, by One who took our petty, selfish, and lazy little problems on Himself and removed from us the burden that we ourselves created. We've been given a free ticket to Paradise, unconditional love, and an assurance that all will be well. That no matter what- no matter what- we are saved. These little problems we deal with in our lives are so useless to spend our time on. So our bank accounts are low. Who cares? We can't take them with us. And no POTUS is going to be able to promise us that he will love us unconditionally, never leave us or forsake us, or take the burdens we cast upon him. But One already did. And so I ask those of us who are madly in love with our new President and spreading his image around with adoration- what about our real Savior? Where is His photo? Where is His logo? Where is His party, His giant salary, His big house, His cheering crowds? Where is our gratefulness for what He has brought to our lives? And most importantly, why is no one talking about it?
I don't know what Obama can do for our nation or for me. But I know what Jesus has already done. And for that I will fill my heart with gratitude and love, and never stop worshipping him- not because he did those things for me, but because He is the only One that is worthy of my praise.
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