Thursday, October
11, 2018
“My spirit is crushed, and my life is nearly snuffed out. The grave is ready to receive me. I am surrounded by mockers. I watch how bitterly they taunt me. “You must defend my innocence, O God, since no one else will stand up for me. You have closed their minds to understanding, but do not let them triumph. They betray their friends for their own advantage, so let their children faint with hunger. “God has made a mockery of me among the people; they spit in my face. My eyes are swollen with weeping, and I am but a shadow of my former self. The virtuous are horrified when they see me. The innocent rise up against the ungodly. The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger. Job 17:1-9(NLT)
Over the last few weeks I have
watched (too) many hours of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings on the
confirmation of Supreme Court nominee (now Justice) Brett Kavanaugh. The process has been steeped in the leveled
accusations of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford claiming she was sexually-assaulted by
Kavanaugh in high school. Among the
takeaways from all the accusations, counter-accusations, moving and shifting of
alleged facts by assembled lawyers, politicians, judges, FBI secret
investigations, and media pundits, is my severe and growing nausea. What a mess!
Another takeaway is a sense of
hopelessness; how can we move forward after this drama?
The anger rising up with all the “who’s
in control” posturing of Republicans vs. Democrats, men vs. women, conservative
vs. liberal, old vs. young, law vs. anarchy, racial bias, grass roots movement
vs. entrenched establishment (a.k.a. the sewer), and others (ad
nauseum) is too great to contain; it spills into everyday life like the running
of the bulls at Pamplona, a stampede that can only lead to destruction.
In the wider view, all of it means
very little to God. Those things we
consider monumental and critical to getting it right in the 21st
century are like flies on a water buffalo’s back; as inconsequential as the
solemn decision a 4-year-old makes as he sits in his sandbox and decides the
real meaning of life is to resist potty training forevermore!
Another takeaway, a whole lot closer
to eternal reality, is sadness for the participants, in particular Dr. Ford and
Judge Kavanaugh. The pathos of broken
spirits, family trust, and eternal souls, as the resultant cost of these
sandbox political machinations reminds me of how Job got into the mess he
experienced. It was a sunny day in Uz as
Job’s kids were planning to have a party under the outdoor pavilion. In the space of just a few hours Job’s
servants, livestock, and family were all taken from him. He had boils raise up to cover his entire
body, and he was left with a harping wife who encouraged him to commit
suicide. To rub salt in these wounds, a
committee from his community showed up to deliver the news that the town
council had voted on the matter and decided it was all Job’s fault; he must
have done some really evil thing to tick God off that much!
And like Job’s friends, we can
only look at Dr. Ford and Justice Kavanaugh from the outside, not knowing who
did what, when, or why, to whom! But
judge? The whole world votes on it. And their children and families are
devastated.
To the point: I don’t know if Bret Kavanaugh ought to sit in
one of those nine chairs, or if Christine Blasey Ford is telling the truth; and
neither do you. But we can all sense the
loss in this, no matter if you’re stuck on the right, calling the woman a liar,
or stuck on the left, wanting to bypass a trial and hang the man. Had Kavanaugh not been confirmed and sworn-in,
there would have been another, and the left and right would still be hurling
mud missiles at each other.
In his book, Mere Christianity,
C.S. Lewis wrote:
Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory or one of
unthinkable horror.[2]
What is true for an individual is
sometimes true of a culture. This is one
of those times. May God have mercy on our children if they are to follow our
example.
For You Today
I would suggest we all find a way to put the swords down and learn
to plow together; that seems the only way to actually move into fruitful
kingdom territory!
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: By CSPAN (U.S.
Congress) [Public domain], via Wikimedia
Commons and United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary [Public
domain], via Wikimedia
Commons
[2] C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity” (1952), Source: Deseretnews
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