Lorena is visiting her family in Mexico and the kids are getting together for the Fourth of July weekend in Seattle. Kiwi the remaining cat sister and I are holding down the fort here in Texas. That has given me time to read and reflect. Writers on the websites and blogs I read are writing about what it means to be American and live in America as we approach the Independence Day celebration. The current state of our country and the world has helpfully reminded me that it is God how is great, not America. Any greatness that can be attributed to any country, America included, is nothing more nor less than the extent to which the people in that country reflect God’s glory through their relationship with him.
The state of the nation and world had me in a state of despair and confusion until I read the book of Esther in the Bible a couple of weeks back. The whole book was a great encouragement as is the book of Job where I am reading now. The Jewish people in captivity in Esther had every reason to despair as did Job when he lost everything, not due to disobedience, but to the gift God gave them to be used by Him in a way that accrued to good and continues to have a positive influence, even to this day. Mordecai’s admonishment to Ruth when the situation was grave and there was little hope seemed especially appropriate for Christians in America and around the world at this time of unrest.
Esther 4:14 – For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Steve Berman is an excellent writer who captures this feeling very well in a post titled The Proper Response When All Outcomes Lead to Ruin*. I used to read his personal blog, SGBerman, but it appears he has upped his game and now writes for, Erick Erickson’s The Resurgent website. He says:
We’ve put too much faith in our own leaders and not nearly enough in God for far too long. The Republican Party is not a church, and it’s not God’s party. The political leaders we choose are not God’s anointed, as we would like to think. We are not Samuel pouring oil over Saul’s head or choosing David from among the sons of Jesse.
I think that statement is equally true for all of America, not just the Republican party. I would also like to add that I love America, unequivoaclly. I believe America, while not perfect, has done great good in her role in the world and the governance of her citizens. Nevertheless, it is not trite to say that we tread very dangerous ground when we, as a country turn from God. Lots of people who loved and served God went into captivity in Babylon. Lots of Christians died for their service to God–our Bible study last Wednesday was Acts 12:1 where it says “And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.” It seemed like just a passing note in the prose. There had to be a much bigger story behind it all. Our allegiance to God might cost us our lives. For most of my life time, a strong argument could have been made that allegiance to God was not incompatible with allegiance to America. That seems to be becoming less true daily.
*I especially liked his mixed, Star Wars-LOTR metaphor.
Lorena is off to Seattle again to give Kelly a hand while she is in the race up to the delivery of an oral presentation of a big paper based on her research. I am stuck here by myself to steam over the election. I am glad I have too much stuff to do to pay much attention to the politics. All the news people who made unequivocal statements about what would happen at the Iowa Caucuses are now making just as unequivocal statements about what will happen at the primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina. They were completely wrong about Iowa and continue to double down by making a bigger deal out of the third place finisher than the winner who got the greatest amount of votes in Republican history of the event. We will see what happens next, but I am pretty happy I am so busy I cannot pay a whole lot of attention.
I LOVE Sarah Palin. The following is from her Facebook 
Our car got towed this morning because we did not have a sticker from our apartment complex to park there. Unfortunately, we had never gotten one even though we had asked repeatedly. Fortunately, if you do not count all the notarizations, hassle, faxing emailing, use of public transport and associated costs, we were not charged for the towing and storage because the apartment complex acknowledged they were the ones who caused the problem. Of course, they will not do anything about the crazy hassle they caused us, but as I tell my kids, “don’t whine!”