To his people, and to his faithful ones,
and to those who put in him their hope.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.Justice shall walk before him,
and salvation, along the way of his steps.
Psalm 85
Reflection
Two Tuesdays ago, we learned that the great leader of Israel, Moses, "was by far the meekest man on the face of the earth." (Numbers 12:1-13) Last Tuesday our Lord told us, "Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14) Today, we hear about the calling of Gideon, who responds to the Lord, "Please, my lord, how can I save Israel? My family is the lowliest in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father's house." (Judges 6:11-24a)
Our latest novels, movies and television programs do not show us great leaders who are meek, humble and who recognize their relative insignificance. Rather, our modern world says that leaders should be fearless, brash, arrogant and proud, just to name a few traits; with an emphasis on arrogant.
A discussion of young people at my house this past Sunday led one of them to ask the others if they were registered to vote. “No way!” one of them replied. I have to admit I was incensed at the vehemence with which she replied. I asked her, “Why not?” Her answer, with a couple of her cousins nodding in agreement was “because they’re all crooks!” I explained that if everyone felt the way she does, things will never get better! I reminded her that if she took the time to study the issues and the candidates, she could weed out the “crooks” and maybe even change the world for the better!
Her body language told me she was uncomfortable with my advice. I took that as a hopeful sign; it indicated to me that she knows, somewhere in that worldly mind of hers that I’m right. And that she just might take it as a dare to do something about it. Only time will tell.
According to the US census, 218 million people in the US were eligible to vote in 2010. Only 90 million people voted. That means the decision of only 41% of those eligible to vote set the course that the rest of the country will have to live with at least until 2012. Our total US population is 306 million people. When only 29% of the population of a country controls how the country is run, the rest of the populace get what they deserve for their apathy, and at the same time, they give up their right to complain.
As I reflected on this today, I decided to include in my daily prayer petitions a request to our Lord to help the US find more leaders who share the virtues of Moses, Jeremiah, and Gideon—because, to be quite frank about it, we’re going to need help of Biblical proportions; no, strike that, I’m thinking too small. We’re going to need Jesus Himself to get this country back to what it used to be and can be again—a beacon for the world to follow.
No comments:
Post a Comment