We were eating fish tacos, probably the best in the world. Or at least the best in mine. The chipotle sauce is what makes them unforgettable. And as I tried to wrap my mind around how I'd wrap my fingers around a meal with messy attributes, my friend said something that stuck with me.
"I've been fighting depression lately," she said, forking a piece of lettuce. Not a woman of moody highs and lows, I know her to be stable and centered and rarely thrown off her foundation because when problems come her prayers can push back the tide.
She listed a couple of serious struggles in her life, struggles that would weigh down the most staunch sunny disposition, struggles which were her reasoning why she'd fought feelings of melancholy. And then she added this, "Also, I read your blog everyday."
Yikes. That's not good.
I didn't blame her. The political news
is depressing and I'm feeding it to you in waves. It's constant arguments and attacks and lies and distortions and noise and, my gosh, I feel a Calgon commercial coming. I have to take breaks, too, which is why you'll rarely see me blogging on weekends. If I don't get away from it, I'll go insane and take whatever spelling abilities I possess with me.
No one wants to see that happen.
This is a rough time. Yesterday confirmed it. We're not living in the country of our grandparents any longer. Political divisions are not simple misunderstandings or procedural differences. We are actually two completely different ideologies, two different countries, living with each other.
It can't last for much longer. One will win, one will lose. And for those of us on the conservative side, we know losing is not an option if freedom is to exist.
So where do we go from here? How are we to keep our chin up and our head high and our back straight and all those other trite physical descriptions that basically mean we won't quit? How are we to keep going without, as my friend admitted, fighting with depression?
Hmmm...well, I personally don't think it's humanly impossible. But why would we put our faith in humans?
Yesterday didn't surprise me. These days, few things do. The current White House administration and the Democrats in Congress have shown their agenda to fundamentally transform our entire government system. They've shown it repeatedly. To believe they'll do anything other than spend money, increase taxes, raise the national debit, take over private business, run the economy into the ground, cause additional job loss, and punish independent citizens is foolhardy. That is their goal and they will, as they've demonstrated with ObamaCare, stop at nothing - bribes, threats, lies, manipulation, rewriting legislative procedures - to accomplish it.
This won't be their last scheme. It was simply the one clearing the path.
But here is what I've learned over the last few years, as I've gone through a personal recession long before the nation joined me, that God is still omnipotent. He's still the head honcho here, "here" meaning "life". No media spin, government take-over, or partisan-controlled Congress can usurp His authority.
Yes, even the IRS cannot overrule God's sovereignty. Though they believe they can.
So here is me telling you not to give up. To take heart, an expression I always found odd, gory, or simply too intimate. But take heart, nonetheless. We do have a battle to fight. We don't have the luxury any longer to ignore the news because politics just isn't our thing. These obstacles are ours to overcome or our future's to mourn.
We have a battle to fight. The results, however, are all up to God. And even on days like today, when the sun is as blindly brilliant as our defeat, God is
the authority over our lives. And nothing, not even an ACORN-led election, a Jesse Jackson march, a Pelosi threat or an Obama speech, can remove God's power over this country while we still acknowledge his power over our lives.
We are weak. God never is.
UPDATE:My good friend Lindsey left a blog comment earlier on another post that summed up the entire message of this blog but did it in two paragraphs. So compelling, I had to add it. Her conviction and spiritual foundation are refreshing. I offer her, without her permission and knowing in her humility this might embarrass her (but I'm doing it anyway), as an example of God's influence in, on, and through His people.
I was disheartened and discouraged last night, mainly by the general spirit of apathy among so many Americans, but I am grateful that our hope and passion for truth is grounded in Christ, and is therefore unshakeable... Our God reigns, and He is righteous and will bring full justice... and all that was done in secret will be exposed, and every knee will bow at His name! And the government will be on His shoulders, and His Kingdom will never end. That's change we can believe in!
Our country has changed and is obviously spiraling downward, but God remains the same. And whether He chooses to restore our nation to its awesome foundation or to further punish the country for selfishly rejecting Him after all He's done for us -- no matter what happens today or years from now -- we are assured that "the Lord protects those who are loyal to Him, but He harshly punishes the arrogant." (Ps. 31:23)
