A whisper of revival

I know I should be writing about the election or provide some sort of concluding comments on my fast, but I just don't feel like it. Obviously, things did not turn out as I hoped. I can't seem to sort out the conflicting emotions broiling inside. On the one hand, I am so incredibly proud that this Nation founded on that great ideal that "All men are created equal" has finally, after centuries of opression and cruel prejudice, elected a black man to the presidency. If only the great freedom fighters Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas, and Martin Luther King Jr. could have seen the day. If only the countless slaves who died in anonimity, beaten down and used indifferently by their thoughtless white masters, could have caught a brief glimpse of the hope to come. At the same time, I wonder, how someone like Harriet Tubman, a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, would have felt about Obama's stand on abortion? She who fought to free the opressed and protect the abused? I daresay she and the others would be sorely disappointed in his ideology, as am I. So, although I can rejoice that perhaps this election is a sign that racism is taking its last rattling breath in this country, I cannot rejoice in the ideas this man brings to the White House.

So, as I said before, we are all called to trust and pray. Do I think God gave (not just allowed, passively) Obama this highest position of the land? Absolutely. To say anything else calls into question God's sovereignity. The end of the book has been written. This is merely a chapter amongst many and Obama a ruler amongst many. Will God use Obama to judge America? I hate to say it, but I believe that's why God gave him and not McCain the victory. Our country is killing 4000 babies everyday. One of of every five junior-high students say they have had sex. Gracious--my oldest is in junior high. If that statistic is accurate, then four of the boys on his football team are no longer virgins! That makes me want to hit something. Child exploitation is everywhere. The Internet is clogged with filth. Thirty-thousand human slaves are living (if that's what you want to call it) in this country, right now as I type. Songs like "That Baby Don't Look Like Me" have become the battle cry of dead-beat dads everywhere. Marriage is constantly under attack. And the schools, well...I don't think there are enough gigabites on this computer to contain all the problems with that crumbling institution.

Suffice to say, that the next four years are going to be difficult. They will be hard for us Christians as well. Judgement has a way of overflowing its intended boundaries. We should be prepared for tough times. But as we all know trials are also a gift from the Father, sometimes they are the most precious gifts of all. When we are tried we are troubled and when we suffer we run to our Daddy for comfort and care. Though the days ahead may be bitter, I can't help but believe that the One who is always spinning evil into good, will take our bitterness and turn it into sweet fruit. And what of this fruit? I shall call it revival, because that is what I think is to come.