The United States is going through elections that somehow seem very different to me than what past elections have been. /
It’s normal for different people to have different thoughts and opinions on how things should be run. It’s normal for people to have different priorities. It’s also normal for people to look at the past and present and see them differently. /
But the thing that strikes me the most is how vastly different people’s perception of facts are. Facts are supposed to be facts. Unarguable. Things that people agree on, even if they totally disagree on what to do about them. /
Yet, in this Information Age when anything can be googled within seconds and news can be sent around the world even faster, facts have somehow become evasive things that shift and turn and transform into something totally different than what they appeared even days earlier. /
I read lists of comments on websites, and I see that half the comments are written by people who cannot understand why so many of “the other side” cannot see what to them appears elemental… and the other half of the comments ricochet the exact same statement back at them! Both cannot be right.
What is truth?
Of course, I know what I believe, and I know what seems obvious to me.
But how do I know that my perceptions are any more accurate than the “other” half of my fellow citizens?
Perhaps this is what Solomon was thinking of when he wrote:
Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. for God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few. – Ecc. 5:2
We citizens (and those around the world) like to pass judgement on the claims, proposals, and speeches of those running for office. We aren’t afraid to say so when we think they are lying, and we often are just as eager to denounce their ideas of what would be good for the country.
I wonder how often God listens to us and shakes His head ruefully at our supposed wisdom? Is there, after all, anyone living today who has perfectly run a country with 50 separate states (each with their own agendas), and 314 million people (each with the freedom to state their own opinions), and an economy that involves 1/5 of the world’s production (even if it is struggling), and…
You get the point.
Yet most of us don’t hesitate to claim that we know what would be best.
It’s actually quite ludicrous to think anyone other than God has any idea what would be best for this country. (Or for the world.) And His priorities are not the same as ours.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:8-9
The only conclusion I find left for me to make is that I have a simple choice:
I can either get myself worked up over what I think the country needs, and I can worry over my future, and my welfare.
Or I can rest in the fact that my God-who-loves-me and who has promised to provide– He is the One who ultimately appoints rulers.
“It is He who changes the times and the epochs;
He removes kings and establishes kings;
He gives wisdom to wise men
And knowledge to men of understanding. – Daniel 2:21
For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. – Romans 13:1
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. – Phil. 4:19