Most days, there’s some news relating to our government. What’s your response?
Make a list of everything you don’t like about our federal, state and local governments. Go ahead, write it down. Now add this title at the top of the sheet: Prayer List.
You know what to do with a prayer list, right?
I want people to like me. I don’t officially take a poll, but I watch other people’s words and body language hoping for affirmation. And sometimes God intervenes.
Say, for example, that I’m chatting with friends and the conversation edges over the line into gossip.
God: It’s time to put an end to this.
Me: What will the others think?
Now who’s putting popularity over principle?
Seems to me that there is only one opinion that really counts: God’s.
So why am I so concerned about what people think?
From John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence, clergyman and president of Princeton University:
“If your cause is just, if your principles are pure, and if your conduct is prudent, you need not fear the multitude of opposing hosts.”
This doesn’t sound like a guy worried about pleasing the public. For him, pure and prudent trump popular. Do you agree? What about the people you helped vote into office? Would you describe them as pure and prudent?
The Bible doesn’t say much about opinion polls . . .
. . . or does it?
Philippians 4:8 (NASB)
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
Did you notice that “whatever is popular” didn’t make the list?
“Poll-tested position.” I ran across the phrase in an opinion column. What is it?
Seems to me that true leaders influence public opinion. Followers are influenced by public opinion. Poll-testing potential views isn’t leadership, it’s follower-ship.
What’s your opinion?
(It’s a poll to discover what I think)
Here the Old Testament meets the New Testament.
from Ecclesiastes 3 (and from Jesus)
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die, you must be born again
a time to plant and a time to uproot, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground
a time to kill and a time to heal, take up your bed and walk
a time to tear down and a time to build, build your house upon the rock
a time to weep and a time to laugh, Jerusalem, I wanted to gather your children
a time to mourn and a time to dance, blessed are those who mourn
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, not one stone left upon another
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, do not hold on to me
a time to search and a time to give up, he left the ninety and nine
a time to keep and a time to throw away, your treasure is where your heart will be
a time to tear and a time to mend, don’t sew an new patch on an old garment
a time to be silent and a time to speak, be my witnesses
a time to love and a time to hate, love one another
a time for war and a time for peace. peace I leave with you
I forget stuff–where I put my keys, something from the grocery store, an unfinished chore. Like my dad used to say, “I don’t have a memory, I have a forgettery.”
We are forgetful people. God established the Passover celebration so his people would remember the slaves’ exodus from Egypt. And it works–centuries later the story is still fresh, thanks to the words, the tastes and the family traditions. Holy Week is also an exercise in remembering. Not just the “Do this in remembrance . . . ” (Luke 22:19) of the Communion service, but the prayer, betrayal, rejection, pain, waiting and overwhelming joy.
Are you remembering?
Luke 22:8
Jesus said to Peter and John, “Go and prepare the Passover meal for us to eat.”
Gotta admire Jesus’ commitment to the traditions of his faith. Of course, this celebration of the Passover transformed the Old Testament (old promise) into the New Testament (new promise).
How about you? Is tradition a rut? Or is it the path to transformation?
Jesus–a study in contrasts:
Most people, if they thought someone was out to kill them, would lay low. Jesus entered Jerusalem to the crowd’s Hosanna cries. Next day, he made a scene in the center of town. But the guy who noisily disrupted Temple profiteering spoke not one word about the sham that was his trial. He cursed a fig tree and blessed those who cursed him.
Isaiah 53:5 (CEV)
. . . by taking our punishment,
he made us completely well.
God’s plan . . . counter-intuitive? Cleverly crafted? Definitely different!
