Catacomb Resident Blog

Building Fortitude

08 November 2022

As one reader has told me privately, believers need to stop getting angry about the political situation.

This is election day in most areas of the US. I can remember when it didn't seem to generate so much hatred. Now it's like two bullies in a schoolyard arguing over who gets to shake down the rest. No matter which way it goes, the little people will lose.

How many of you have ever seen or heard the "Serenity Prayer"? The story of where it comes from is highly debated, but it seems that Reinhold Niebuhr originally wrote it like this in 1932:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,
courage to change the things that should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

The more popular version is from Alcoholics Anonymous. By the way, Niebuhr had a lot to do with pushing religion to become more political. He had a very flawed notion about what we should try to change as believers.

It's not as if we can do nothing to make this world suck a little less, but it's nowhere near as much as most people imagine. No one has wrested things from God's hands. Rather, God has made Satan the Prince of this world. Outside of the Covenant, Satan is herding humanity. No part of American politics is under the Covenant, so voting in elections is a matter of choosing one brand of evil over another. Worse, the election process is so corrupt, you should never imagine that it matters much in the first place.

If voting made any difference, the elite rulers wouldn't allow it.

Do you understand that good moral people never run for elected office? Nobody with a conscience wants to tell someone else what to do. Godly elders and rulers in the Old Testament were never eager to assume such a heavy burden of responsibility. Moses tried to avoid leading Israel out of Egypt. David claimed he was barely capable of leading sheep, never mind God's people. The best government is the one that would rather be doing something else, but accepts the burden from the Lord.

So, unless we are talking about putting the government under the Code of Noah, we have no business investing any energy at all in it. Expect the worst every time. Give thanks when you believe things improve a little, but don't ever get emotionally invested in the outcomes. It's just a distraction. Trust the Lord and work more on building your fortitude.


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