More god

Greetings from St. Paul Lutheran Church in Bulverde, Texas.  I’m Lee    Harder, senior pastor, sharing this week’s blog/vlog with you.  I hope you’ll share it with friends.

This is the week.  At long last, this Tuesday we vote at the mid-term elections.  It seems like it took us forever to get to this point, but it will soon be over.   Under normal conditions, in a regular year like those in a more distant past, barring a week of “talking heads” analyzing each poll and minuet detail, we would be done with campaign talk of perpetual accusations, blatant lies, and outright deceptions for a few months, I would believe that.  However, I fear the campaigning for 2020 will simply begin in earnest the next morning.

Whatever happened to an election of ideas where potential candidates could discuss and debate, project and define fundamental differences that exist between them and let the people decide.  Silly me!  It went the same way as an impartial, fair minded media that reported the news without an obvious bias.  It went the way of people working hard, trying to do their best in every endeavor because it was the right thing to do and the way people lived.

The latest tidbit is a growing need to generate a new baby boom because fewer and fewer people are having families.  Apparently having a family (children) isn’t a high priority.  First must come establishing one’s position with prosperity and importance in the world, followed by personal comfort.  Then one must seek out, via the internet and one of the many dating vehicles, the proper match according to statistical data, before even the thought of having a family.  (Even then I wonder who will really be raising the children, daycare, the state, grandparents?)

I watch the news and I see pipe bombs being sent to people because they think differently, synagogues where people are murdered and hurt, and one can’t even have dinner out with family without be accosted by a mob of protesters because they believe in a different political position.  This world is caught in a fever of insanity and lack of human consideration fed by forces of evil that won’t quite.  If left unchecked, we’re going to burn ourselves up.

I have an idea.  I don’t know if it will solve the way we do elections, treat one another with decency, or help young and old grow up to be caring, responsible adults, but it could.  My suggestion is a little more (I would prefer a lot more) God in our lives.  I’m not talking about the god of “happy holidays” but the God who gave us Christ.  I’m not referring to the god of avarice who calls us to get all one can but the One who surrendered Himself on the cross so others could have life.  I’m not referencing the god who calls on followers to destroy and kill those who believe differently, but the One, True God who calls for peace among people, all people.
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Maybe if we start submitting ourselves to God’s will which Christ defined as loving God and one another, we might stop tearing ourselves apart with self serving conceit, seeking to destroy the lives of those with whom don’t agree, and condemning our nation’s history to the point of re-writing it because it  isn’t perfect.  Maybe. . .
But those are just my thoughts.
God bless.
Pastor Lee