Just East of West

You know you’re getting older when the idea of wandering around Office Max for a while sounds like a good way to kill an hour. (more…)

So last Tuesday, A.K.A. “SuperTuesday,” Jennifer and I, as the patriotic couple we are, went out to vote. Fortunately for us the closest place to vote was at the old-folks-home right next to our apartment complex. So after dinner we popped over to join the ranks of informed, involved and active members of society. *insert tung-in-cheek here*

Now, I was under the impression that one could simply walk in and prove residency with a recent bill or paycheck or something of that nature and both register to vote and actually vote in the same day. Well it looks like I was mistaken, I think. Let’s just say the lines of communication were. . . muddied. Jennifer was registered to vote in Grandview and the last place I voted was Kentucky. It took us about 25 minutes to explain our situation and to figure out that we couldn’t vote that day when a simple, “Have you registered here before? No? Well then you need to fill this out” should have sufficed. I don’t want to be mean but I think it might have been prudent to have one person working the voting booth at the retirement home that wasn’t also a resident thereof.

The real rub is that Mike Huckabee lost by such a slim margin in Missouri that our two votes really would have made a difference. He lost by less than 9,000 and because of the way the Republican Primaries work he didn’t get a single delegate out of the deal.

If you haven’t noticed by now I/we are not real big on politics. It’s such a big foggy, murky, unpleasant mess that I try to steer clear. I’m not against discussing politics as long as it doesn’t cross the line into angry criticism (this is what I mean, it is an old post, one of my first actually, so pardon my longwindedness) I can just find other subjects that I would rather dwell on, talk about or blog about (there are some cool blue hedgehogs out there).

However, this upcoming election is un-ignorable. Rick Joyner, in his message this past Sunday made the statement that this will be THE most important election since the 1860’s and that each election will become more and more important from here on out.
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Movement. Movement and change are the constants of a tender heart. I look at the four years since I came to Kansas City and I can mark the changes I have undergone but I remember maybe one or two instances where big change happened quickly. In those instances I only realize the change took place in hindsight. The subtlety of the Lord is truly amazing.

What do change and the movement of one’s heart have to do with corrupt leadership? I submit that it is the key to determining how to pray for leadership. A good leader is one whose heart is easily swayed by the Lord. A redeemable leader is one who, when the Lord intervenes, changes (at least a little) the way he lives and rules.
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The mild din, the soft music, the pleasantly pungent aromas, the warm cup sitting six inches to the left of my laptop, filled with the ever-dear-to-my-heart Tall Vanilla Latte. It’s official: coffee shops are the best place to blog. There’s something about the constant noise and movement that really helps me concentrate. Maybe that’s why I like the prayer room too.

Anyway . . . If you haven’t noticed Leadership and our response to it is something that is heavy on my heart and I am adamant about understanding the ins and outs of the Lord’s heart in it. How are we to pray? How should we act? I find these questions tricky at best and as we approach the end of the age we are going to be faced with increasingly wicked governments.

So how do we act? Do we submit to wicked leadership or rise up and rebel against it? When we look at Biblical models what we see at first appears to be contradictions. Moses and the plagues against Pharaoh, the judges appointed, Like Samson that flew in the face of the established structures, numerous prophets, both Major and Minor, speaking against the wicked leaders of their time. Or extra-biblically we have the Maccabean revolt against Antiochus Epiphanies.

Then there is the other side, David letting the Lord deal with Saul even when he was within his reach, Jeremiah telling the people to go into captivity without resistance, Daniel serving a pagan government faithfully for the majority of his life, the beast empires sent to judge Israel, and (above all) the only One above any of these structures not only submitting to it and dying because of it but also telling you to pay taxes too.

Despite all other evidence I am going to side with Jesus. Besides if we really examine the biblical evidence for acting against a government we see that there is something bigger going on. The prophets were addressing the heart condition of the whole nation, not just the leaders. Plus, they were speaking what the Lord was declaring, not moving to tear anything down. Samson and other judges were acting against the enemies of Israel not the leaders of Israel. If we look at Moses, it was God that delivered Israel through the plagues. Moses was there to let pharaoh know who was responsible. And as for the Maccabean revolt, well, there is a reason it’s not in your Bible.

We have the first part of out answer, how do we act as subjects to government? We obey. As long as obedience does not constitute sin or wickedness is allowed to prevail through out inaction, we stay within the confines of the law.

This means that only two options remain to us. One is of course prayer, which I will address in part 3, and the other is changing our leadership through the means provided through the established governmental structure. We are blessed with one that is open to change every four years and cannot be unanimously controlled by any one man or group. ( At least in theory.) Although the system is not perfect, as long as it exists we won’t see the atrocities that are occurring in Zimbabwe and elsewhere happen here.

Let me just add a quick postscript here. This could sound as if I were saying that I was against the stand for LIFE or other movements to right what is wrong in our country. I’m not saying this at all, in fact quite the opposite. I am all for standing against injustice. I appreciate that our country allows us legal means to protest those things in our laws that don’t align with the heart of the Lord. I also love that such great pains are taken in order to protest within the legal bounds that are placed on such protests. And to all you who stand for LIFE, well done.

Today the sole topic of prayer for my prayer room team is the increasingly oppressed and impoverished nation of Zimbabwe. Jeff Eggers, the leader of the team, read to us the latest of an ever increasingly long list of tragic, heartbreaking reports of the situation in Zimbabwe. The letters come from a western reporter living in the country who has been sending out weekly updates about the political, economic, and social conditions that are rapidly disintegrating.

Just a couple of facts to give you an idea of the situation:

-The government has seized the many of the farms in the country and they now lie barren.
-Inflation is around 1,700% and rising by an average of 4% per day.
-The average cost of school (k-12) has risen from $500 per year to over $2000.
-Power outages are frequent and the president is building a palace that, when completed will drain 1/3 of the country’s power.

I will leave it at that since the heart of this post is not the current state of Zimbabwe or a motivation to pray, although I hope prayer is a side affect. Perhaps I will have to dedicate a later post to this topic but for now let me get on with it.

My point is that all the trouble in Zimbabwe stems from the corrupt government, specifically the president, Robert Mugabe. He has single-handedly turned his country from the “bread basket of Africa” to the desolate, ruined land it is now through a process of terrible decision after terrible decision. The clincher, though, is that he blames western countries for everything and has decided to remain in power three years beyond his set term.

Now, to tie the title into the context, is Robert Mugabe a Nebuchadnezzar or a Belshazzar (from the book of Daniel)? Look at these two historical figures and note how Daniel (one of the top 5 wisest people ever) treats them differently. For example, when Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that means judgment from the Lord, Daniel wishes with all his heart that it would fall upon someone else even after Nebuchadnezzar builds an altar, demands worship, and tries to kill Daniel’s friends when the refuse to comply (Daniel 4:19).

On the other hand, when Belshazzar has an evil feast on the eve of his destruction and the writing on the wall appears to pronounce his time is up, Daniel takes a different tone with him. Daniel seems to write him off as lost and gives him over to the judgment.

What’s the difference? What was it that Daniel saw in Nebuchadnezzar that wasn’t in Belshazzar or vice versa? Is Mugabe a Nebuchadnezzar or a Belshazzar? How can we tell one type of leader from another and how do we pray for them?

I’ll attempt to resolve some of these questions in part 2 but I want to hear your thoughts first. Bonus Blog points if you can guess where I’m going with this.

Though I’m not too big on politics I’ll kick this off with something I feel is worth noting. Perhaps I’m being redundant without realizing it, if so forgive me.

It pains me the way the general population of this country has taken so lightly condemning the actions of George W. Bush and the general leadership of this country. We so freely and easily jump to conclusions about the how and what and the why behind all that is happening both here and overseas.

It pains me that even within the church there are so many who fail to bridle their tougues, and fall into the deception that even lightly judging that state of affairs of the leadership of this country in a way that is derogatory is acceptable. It is one thing to gauge where we are and where we’re going with foreign and domestic affairs and even comment on potential solutions, but its when the talk turns into personal insult and character slams (as I too often find political coversations) that it crosses the line.

So often even the discussion of potential solutions carry such bitting undertones that the conversations become nothing more than (poorly) veiled personal insults that spring from a place in the darkness of our hearts. We really have to watch this, myself first and foremost.

Lets look at a Biblical example: Even in the midst of a wicked government and directly serving a pagan leader, Daniel never criticized the way things were run. How did he change the political climate? Through intercession and faithful service to the government in place. We should be quick to learn from this example.

If I were to guess I would say the majority of times we find ourselves in this kind of prediciment is because we are swept into it by others, sometimes without realizing it’s happening. How often I catch myself doing exactly this. I’ve set my heart to resist being pulled into conversations I’ve no right to be in even if it causes me to lose a little face in the process. I hope you will be more aware of this as well and think about where your heart is at next time you talk politics.

Well, I’ll end my first real blog on a lighter note, perhaps a joke: What’s black and white and red all over?

A set of Mike’s notes and a poorly chosen highlighter.

Hey, I never said it would be a GOOD joke, and I also never said I wouldn’t use absurd amounts of run on sentences.