It’s Broken

This is a difficult time.  Not just in the US but in several places overseas.  I just read a Facebook post from an acquaintance that shared an article from an independent organization named after a major denomination.  It was a one-sided piece that was presented as a reasoned examination of pastors losing their ministries because of politics.  To suggest that the country is divided, would be an epic understatement, polarized may be more accurate.

I meet weekly with Christian leaders in Morocco, Cameroon, and Ethiopia – more accurately I am scheduled to do so.  In Morocco, while weekly I hear of new believers, the underground churches are meeting, knowing that they could be arrested for doing so.  In Cameroon, a country that has the potential to be both an economic and spiritual gateway to both the French speaking and English-speaking countries in the area since the country is bilingual, one language group is attempting to overrun the other, thus destroying one of their greatest advantages.  In Ethiopia the government controls access to the internet shutting it down to keep people from communicating.  Thus, my comment about being scheduled to meet with a leader there.

It seems that regardless of one’s political leaning today, everyone is either frustrated or angry.  Larry Crabb always said that frustration was the result of a blocked goal, and that anger was the result of a continually blocked goal.  The corollary was that Biblical goals could not be blocked.  As I have pondered that over the years and rubbed his thought against the Scriptural data I believe he is correct.

So, what do we do with all of this?  There are several passages that come to mind that may be of help, consider:

• Psalm 46:2 – 3 (here @ BibleGateway)
• Hebrews 13:8 (here @ BibleGateway)
• Psalm 118:8 (here @ BibleGateway)
• Jeremiah 17:7 (here @ BibleGateway)
• Matthew 6:33 (here @ BibleGateway)

Regardless of what is happening in the country or the world, the Lord does not change.  The Lord can be trusted.  The world cannot be trusted.  It is broken.  All its systems are as well.  Our charge is to cleave to Him and invite others to do so as well.