It Can't be 1980 All Over Again
Change is coming.
I sense it as uneasiness.
Not all change is good. But it does always require adjustment.
This is not me trying to be coy or to pretend that I have prophetic powers. I don't. But we will soon have a new president, or precedent, depending on how you chose to spell it. The transition since the election has been anything but easy. About one-fourth of the American population seems happy about the change--the group that supported and voted for the new president. The rest, about 75% of the population, did not vote for him. Many of them are mad because of what he said to get himself into office.
I remember the winter of 1980, the period after Reagan won his first term. I remember people wondering how it could happen. They referred to the Gipper, a star of B movies, taking on his "greatest role, as President of the U.S." Of course, many were elated that we were finally going to have a conservative in office. I didn't know what to think. I hadn't voted for him either. We all adjusted, though. Soon enough, I was wearing docksiders and an occasional polo shirt with an alligator on it. That was about 1983. It took me three years. My hair, though, was still parted down the middle.
Today, though I'm much older and not about to change the style of clothes I wear, I'm not just wondering about what is about to happen, though I do. A reality TV star has won the election. He's got a brand and name recognition. But I think I'm uneasy because it is now possible to wonder if we will have news outlets and media that will give us fair coverage of what is going on. We might not. We might have a press that keeps going for ratings. And not only that. I'm also concerned that we will have an electorate of people who actually care about getting that news.
Too many people I talk with today don't care to hear the news. They don't have details. They have an alternate view. Everyone has his or her talking points taken from favorite columnists and TV shows.
It may turn out okay. Or it may turn out that we will just be subjected to frequent tweets and ads that make major, over-the-top claims about the new leader. Without a free press, will the new man in office be held responsible for his actions and words? He hasn't been so far. He won his office doing what no one before him has done. Others saw their candidacies sink in the mire of their bad behavior caught on tape or reported. Not our leader-elect.
So what is ahead? Some say we get the leaders we deserve.
Change is ahead. It is coming.
You can expect some adjustments.
I sense it as uneasiness.
Not all change is good. But it does always require adjustment.
This is not me trying to be coy or to pretend that I have prophetic powers. I don't. But we will soon have a new president, or precedent, depending on how you chose to spell it. The transition since the election has been anything but easy. About one-fourth of the American population seems happy about the change--the group that supported and voted for the new president. The rest, about 75% of the population, did not vote for him. Many of them are mad because of what he said to get himself into office.
I remember the winter of 1980, the period after Reagan won his first term. I remember people wondering how it could happen. They referred to the Gipper, a star of B movies, taking on his "greatest role, as President of the U.S." Of course, many were elated that we were finally going to have a conservative in office. I didn't know what to think. I hadn't voted for him either. We all adjusted, though. Soon enough, I was wearing docksiders and an occasional polo shirt with an alligator on it. That was about 1983. It took me three years. My hair, though, was still parted down the middle.
Today, though I'm much older and not about to change the style of clothes I wear, I'm not just wondering about what is about to happen, though I do. A reality TV star has won the election. He's got a brand and name recognition. But I think I'm uneasy because it is now possible to wonder if we will have news outlets and media that will give us fair coverage of what is going on. We might not. We might have a press that keeps going for ratings. And not only that. I'm also concerned that we will have an electorate of people who actually care about getting that news.
Too many people I talk with today don't care to hear the news. They don't have details. They have an alternate view. Everyone has his or her talking points taken from favorite columnists and TV shows.
It may turn out okay. Or it may turn out that we will just be subjected to frequent tweets and ads that make major, over-the-top claims about the new leader. Without a free press, will the new man in office be held responsible for his actions and words? He hasn't been so far. He won his office doing what no one before him has done. Others saw their candidacies sink in the mire of their bad behavior caught on tape or reported. Not our leader-elect.
So what is ahead? Some say we get the leaders we deserve.
Change is ahead. It is coming.
You can expect some adjustments.
posted by Thomas Allbaugh @ 10:53 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
I think we often get leaders that are *better* than we deserve, but I'm kind of cynical that way! I love the perspective that Nebuchadnezzar gives us, in the chapter of Daniel which he basically wrote (chapter 4) - the idea is expressed twice within the chapter, the first time is part of the dream sequence, from verse 17: “This sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers
And the decision is a command of the holy ones,
In order that the living may know
That the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind,
And bestows it on whom He wishes
And sets over it the lowliest of men.”
So I know that no one wins an election without at least God's permission. I have viewed certain presidents as judgments on the nation ("You want some of that? Okay, here, have a whole lot of that!") and other presidents as "a new chance." No doubt many of my friends and I would hold reverse opinions as to who was a judgment and who was another opportunity and, ultimately, that's not my call anyway.
But I do think it's a critical time to be praying for the President, for our leaders, for the nation - I think of Jeremiah 29, you know how everybody claims verse 11 ("For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."), but too often miss the context of that great promise: (starting at verse 4)
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.’ For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares the LORD.
“For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’
The good news is that, as Christians, we know that our PERMANENT life is not on this planet Earth - but it's still easy to get caught up by the zeitgeist and we can resist even *hearing* God, especially if He says, "Settle down, pray for the peace and prosperity of the land into which I sent you in exile, because you're going to be there for awhile and as it prospers, you will prosper."
I fear there are a lot of people who *want* to see President Trump fail, as if that would vindicate them in some way. Weird. Because, of course, we can't do an A/B test - we can't live this next four years and then go back and RE-live the next four years with HRC in the White House. Best outcome, for everyone interested in the good of the nation and the good of the people (as opposed to political power), is that this administration does well and does good work. I prayed for the last administration. I pray for this one.
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