From My Perspective - - -

A Wall Street Journal Columnist wrote a very poignant paragraph regarding Republican Candidates for the Presidency. Last week, she wrote: “The worst trend in politics that fully emerged…People running for president not to be president but as a branding exercise, to sell books and get a cable contract and be a public figure and have people who heretofore hadn’t noticed you now stopping you in the airport to get a picture and an autograph. In an endeavor like this you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You’re not held back by any sense of realism as to your positions, you don’t have to worry about them being used against you down the road because there won’t be a down the road. You can say anything. And because you do you seem refreshing. People start to like you—you’re not like all the others, who are so careful. You rise, run your mouth for a month and fall. Maybe this is harmless. But America is in crisis. The world is in crisis. Everywhere you look establishments and old arrangements are falling, toppling to the ground. Does it help, in this context, to lower the standing of the American political process by inserting your buffoonish, unserious self into it? Or does it make things just a little bit worse?”

Her rhetorical questions point to the fact that these Serious Times Require People Who Are Serious. How many times have you listened to a Candidate from any political persuasion, or a spokesperson for them, or a prognosticator and said to yourself – “You’ve got to be kidding! That just isn’t true!” Not enough of the cheering crowds pause to consider what they have heard nor the implication of what was said means. In other words, these Serious Times are devoid of People Who Are Serious. It reminds one of an old Radio and Television Program – Truth Or Consequences? It seems as though too many are willing to risk the Consequence rather than confront and demand the Truth! There seems to be a readiness and wiliness to set aside foundational principles and core values so that a greater good can be accomplished and satisfied. There are no parameters to reference – but – there is the willingness to blithely and blindly go forward in lock step – ignoring any and all warning signs in the process.

The realities of life and the shortness of it goes on. Later on today, there will be two Memorial Services conducted for the wives of two long-time friends. Both wives died after enduring the struggle with cancer and the treatments that were not accomplishing the desired result. It gives one a moment to pause and remember that real people are passing through serious personal times – and – they are having to deal with the gravity of the moment in the most serious of ways imaginable. James 4:13-15 reminds serious people that: “ Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” James reminds us that life is brief, at best, and goes on to say: “…you ought to say, If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.” This truth is also shared in a Prayer of Moses – Psalm 90:1,10-12,“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations…The length of our days is seventy years-- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away….Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Considering these realities and the brevity of life, a renewed emphasis needs to be placed upon the need for Serious Times Require People Who Are Serious. RaviZacharias shared these thoughts: “Although the cultural revolution has abandoned the fundamental foundations of faith, restoration is possible if Christians will light the way. (1) We are thrust into a humanistic world view, and we wonder how it happened. (2) A cultural revolution is under way, and we must respond. (3) As we come unhinged from our Creator, our culture's foundations are being destroyed (4) The antagonism against things spiritual is real. (5) The revolution strikes at the jugular of every institution in the land. (6) God created us to be accountable for our actions, but that has been lost. (7) By losing accountability, we've eradicated conscience. ( God gave us charity, but that has been lost. We have lost the idea of beneficence.” Please – Consider These Things With Me!