I admit I was wrong. In the months leading up to the election, I watched, I read, and I formed opinions. The dysfunction and division of so much in public life has lain heavily on me. Then came Tuesday, election day, and I thought, “Whoa! What’s really going on here?” So, I wrote no Minute the last three days while trying to sort things out. With so much so uncertain, and the risks for our national well-being so very high, I’ve come to the conclusion that our system works. The divided government that the Founders created is working.
The “National Review” posted an analysis with this title, “Our Big, Messy, Diverse, Crazy Country Does It Again.” A piece in “The Atlantic” said, “The Trump-Biden race was a test of national character, and it looks likely that the United States will pass, if only just. But the outcome was not a comfortable one, and the work of converting aspirations into realities will be no less difficult and uncertain over the next four years than over the four years past.” The “Washington Examiner” posted an article titled, “Don’t bet on a return to normalcy.” It leads with a cartoon of a donkey and an elephant who knocked each other out in a boxing match. When both parties get up off the mat, they need to do some serious soul-searching. We all do, which leads me to my second confession.
Since Covid hit, I’ve been very concerned about the future of our congregations. What will happen without traditional in-person Sunday worship? Will finances hold up? America had already marginalized the church; is Covid the knockout blow? Of course, the Church in its truest sense, believers following Jesus, will always abide but what about the institutional, “visible” church? I confess I was like Martha in the kitchen. Now I’m seeing signs that our congregations are rising to the challenges. New ways of communicating, stable donations, pastors and laypeople posting about their faith, new energy and efforts… Like the prognosticators in my second paragraph, this is not an easy time for the church, we can feel beaten up, and “Don’t bet on a return to normalcy.” But we are in better shape than I, at least, feared. Who is this stranger walking with us downcast people? “O foolish ones, and slow to believe.” For us in the church, our hearts are burning within us as He talks to us on this very strange journey (Luke 24:25, 32).
Comments