"Who do you identify with?" (God Moments)

DISCLAIMER:  This entry is a follow-on to my last post - The Justification of Political Complacency  Much of what follows is anything but sunshine and roses.  The warnings born in the first paragraph of that previous post apply in spades here.

Time flies.  It feels like just a blink ago that Ryan and I attended a Father/Son Church Retreat one springtime weekend.  Wow.  Ryan may have been 14 then and he's 37 now, so I'll let you do the math.  The camp was set on a small lake surrounded by towering Douglas fir.  One evening around the campfire, the lecturer for the weekend asked the huddled group of men and boys:  "What Bible character do you identify with?"  Hands shot up immediately in the dim glimmer although mine remained clasped in my lap.  Then a cascade of names filled the still air.  Peter, the fisherman and first apostle, seemed to be the most common answer followed in popularity by the Apostle Paul.  There was one King David (I was never sure if my friend saw himself a giant slayer (I Samuel 17:49-50) or an adulterer (II Samuel 11).  No matter.) and one dude spouted out "Adam!"  I assume he had more kids than he could handle.

My answer has remained my own for all these years but I'll share it now.  The Gospel of Mark gives an account of Christ's betrayal and arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:43-50) which is followed by this sidebar in verses 51 and 52:

"Now a certain young man followed Him,

having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body.

And the young men laid hold of him,

and he left the linen cloth

    and fled from them naked."   

The Bible does not explicitly identify this young man but the Gospel of Mark is the only narration of Christ's betrayal that includes this detail.  Therefore, many Bible scholars speculate that the young man was Mark himself and that the report was chronicled as a form of confession given in shame and humiliation.

Yup, Mark's my guy.  No, I have never literally run away naked (I'll spare you that mental scar), but without doubt I have felt the sting of humiliation and the shame of failure.  Fear and weakness are not bad in and of themselves.  How we respond in the moment tells the tale.  My response has many times been less than desirable but I've also come to see those same occasions as blessings as my weakness almost constantly reinforces my dependance on my Lord and Savior.  Nonetheless, shame and humiliation rooted in weakness leave scars not soon healed.   Weakness is my middle name.

Circling around to that previous blog entry, the final sentence reads: "Just to be perfectly clear:  I believe that Donald Trump is God's agent of judgement upon America, not an envoy of salvation."  Let me try to clarify that statement.  In truth, I have no idea what that "judgement" looks like.  Simply stated:

"The foolishness of God is wiser than men,

and the weakness of God is stronger than men." 

                           

                                   I Corinthians 1:25

And God Almighty hasn't seen fit to confide in Doug.  I can feel your shock.  Regardless, my life experiences have taught me that when God's people disobey his commands, i.e. they sin, there are always consequences.  Further, I find that many of Donald Trump's loyalists, perhaps apologists is a better term, possess a near cultish admiration for the man.  Politics is one thing, blind faith is idolatry.  Together, I believe that God will now give to America exactly what the American people have asked for.  Indeed, fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  Yes, I'll double down on the conclusions I offered in my last blog entry. 

    

No sooner had that blog entry been posted than I began to reflect on how any, or all of it, would present itself in a tangible way.  In the not too distant future will I literally be sitting on an ash heap as Job did?  (Job 2:8)  Will our nation be sitting on a figurative ash heap?  Again, I have no idea.  

Yet, an item came across my browser this past weekend that caught my eye, gave me a sense of what's happening and prompted my writing in the here and now.

Ouch.  Those five little words, ONLY THE WEAK WILL FAIL!, would seem to be aimed directly at me and my kindred spirit Apostle.  For the fifty-plus years of my tepid political consciousness, presidents have come and gone, wars have come and gone, policies have come and gone.  Some of it I applauded.  Some of it not so much.  But through it all I always felt that my government and those who were governing had hoped that average citizen Doug would succeed.  Indeed, my success was their success.  Surely, my success was the nation's success.

    

Now I'm washed with a heavy sense of loss.  Donald Trump's post makes it all too clear that at best he doesn't care if I fail and at worst he actually hopes that I fail so that someone stronger will gain.  What's really sad is that there are so many more who are so much more vulnerable than me.  More-so, my world view holds that all people in their fallen state are indeed weak.  Collateral damage, expendable lives.  God have mercy on us all.

Yes, sadness and loss are definite aspects of that word "judgement".      

"Naked I came from my mother's womb,

And naked shall I return there.

The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;

Blessed be the name the Lord."

                             Job 1:21

Say it with me..........Blessed be the name of the Lord!