Imagine That...

Let’s try something. Take a trip back in time,

Close your eyes…no wait, that won’t work. Pretend to close your eyes.

Drift back in your mind about 3-4 months. Back before you ever heard the words social distancing. Before the virus was a thing.

Think about your best days. Imagine birds singing, sun shining, you’re smiling. All is well in your world. Family’s doing good. Kids are excelling at school. Job is great, you just got a raise. The neighbors are waving, inviting you over for steak.

The economy is soaring. Folks are gathering in stadiums cheering. The local folk fill the bleachers Friday nights and pews Sunday morning. The aroma of fresh coffee and pie fills the air in every café while truckers and farmers and townsfolk chatter.

Can you picture it?

Can you hear the laughter, the chatter, the cheering?

Can you smell the bacon and eggs and coffee? taste the pie?

Can you feel the refreshing peace?

Life is good.

God is great.

America is beautiful.

But then from out of nowhere, it hits, we’re blindsided.

All the joyful sounds mutate into an obnoxious buzzing. Travel bans are enacted. Strange words echo from everywhere. Virus. COVID-19. Quarantine. Social distancing.

The world does a somersault. All goes dark. As high as the economy had soared, it flips upside down, and sinks that much lower.

Unprecedented. That’s the word that describes the day.

Instead of shouting from stadiums and bleachers, quarantined folks scream across keyboards into a virtual world where no one is listening, everyone is speaking.  Rather than sport scores, we check death tolls. Handwashing is the favorite pastime. And for some reason, everyone has a craving for toilet paper.   

The government springs into action. Some say it good. Others say bad. But all of a sudden stadiums and coliseums are converted to hospital rooms; car places make ventilators. Everybody learns what PPE means. Tests go from zero to millions per week.  

The most watched shows go from sporting events to the Coronavirus Task Force Briefings. Day in, day out, seven days a week, for hours on end. Reports. Numbers. Plans. Unending questions are asked and answered.

At the end of the day, those Task Force Folks, go home, it’s late, they scrub off any chance of the virus.

All go home, but one. One can’t go home, because he’s already there. He collapses in his chair. It’s the first time he’s been alone since five that morning.  He rubs his eyes, then tilts his head back and stares at the ceiling of the Oval Office.

Can you picture him?

Can you hear the clock ticking, the weariness in his breathing, the sorrow in his sigh as he recalls the latest jeering?

Can you smell a mixture of sweat and Old Spice…or whatever aftershave that is?

Can you feel the coldness of the empty dark room as he’s thinking, praying?

Life is hard.

God is good

Make America great again.

Now

Image

That

Man

Sitting

There

Is…

Obama.

What happened?

For a split-second, did your feelings change? Did the actions of this man you pictured, the travel bans, the hospital building, the PPE making, the test creating, the unending Q&A…did it all of a sudden seem okay? In a flash did it go from bad to good?

Be honest.

If so, then sorry to say, but you suffer from party prejudice. Respectfully, I submit that another name for it is T.D.S. (Trump Derangement Syndrome).

If you’re still reading and totally disagreeing with what I’m saying, thank you for hanging in there—I’m totally impressed.

You may not believe it, but it’s true. If all the action that’s been taken goes from awful to awesome just by changing who you picture sitting in that chair, you’re deceived with the exact same darkness that caused the scribes and pharisees to say Jesus was a liar, filled with demons, and condemned to death.

I just ticked off some folks. Worse yet, the ones who need to read it most, stopped as soon as they read, “He rubs his eyes, then tilts his head back and stares at the ceiling of the Oval Office.” They realized President Trump was in the story; so, they said a four-letter word, and stopped reading.

That’s okay, because you can help. If you know someone who suffers from this ailment, you can do this exercise with them. Pray first and then, talk them through it and see what happens. They may punch you in the face…or they may say, wow, my eyes have just been opened. The latter is what we pray for.

Finally, I’ll close by answering a question.

Yesterday I received this message: “Doug, your posts started off being wonderful Christian posts.....now they are one sided political posts. Sorry but I just won't read them anymore.” 

That’s a legitimate concern.

I grew up hearing the phrase, “Don’t talk politics or religion.” That phrase was wrong.

Why talk politics? The short answer: we must. To be a responsible Christian today, we must talk politics, for the same reason you warn your family about a ravenous wolf sneaking around the back door.

Folks, it ain’t granddads democratic party no more. Politicians have become possessed by a deep-seated darkness, pushing them beyond their own selfish lusts and pleasures into our neighborhoods, churches, schools and homes…desiring to steal our very souls.

For a Christian to not talk politics, to not sound an alarm, to not turn on the light is tantamount to being complicit in this present darkness.

Life is hard.

God is great

America will be beautiful again…if we do our part.

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2:1-4