The budget talks in Washington, D.C., have been alarming.

Not because our country is borrowing money on credit just to pay its regular monthly bills (hey, half of America does that) and not because we're teetering on the edge of defaulting on our loans as a nation. (By the way, we've been playing this way for years... the debt ceiling had to be raised at least four times during the Bush administration, so this isn't anything new.) What astounds me is the degree of immaturity being displayed by our nation's elected officials.

• Walking out of meetings when things don't go their way (do they still slam doors, too?).
• Peer pressure and taking sides (aren't we all on Team USA?).
• Name-calling. (Okay, they do that all the time, I know.)
• And the kind of  stubborn, stomp-your-foot-and-cross-your-arms mindset reminiscent of a roomful of toddlers running high on full-sugar Kool-Aid and Halloween candy.

In the real world where the majority of us live, the grown-ups are expected to act like grown-ups, which means sometimes you have to lay aside your personal preferences  for the greater good. How did that go on Star Trek? "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?" (My Trekkie friends will be correcting me now, but you get the point.)

Ethan, Caitlin & Luke. Josh hadn't arrived yet.

Having raised a houseful of children, and having endured their battles over things like who gets the top bunk, who gets the front seat, the remote control, the VCR, computer time, the first shower, the last shower, the piece of cake in the corner, the piece of cake with the extra frosting, who gets to lick the beater after the batter is mixed, which movie to see, where to go on vacation, which fast food to scarf down for dinner, who mows the front lawn and who mows the back... shall I continue?

I think it's time we call in a mediator of great power and strength. Someone who has demonstrated the ability to manage the most immature individuals of all sizes... It's time we send a strong, capable woman to Washington to bring these immature politicians under control ...


Yep. We need to invite Supernanny to come sit in on these congressional budget talks, because the "big boys" in Washington are acting like they're all still in short pants. Shame on them.

When Bill Clinton ran for his second term in office, praying for "God's will to be done" was de rigeur for my prayer time.

Imagine my shock and surprise when Clinton won the election! Confused (because we were all believing Clinton would be set aside), I sought the Lord's counsel, and was reminded that we had diligently prayed and believed for His will to be done. Hmm.

Urged to pray, pray, pray before the 2008 election, I complied. Try as I might, I could not bring myself to name any candidate (this was even before the primary elections were held). All I could pray was "Lord, Your will be done, on earth as it is done in heaven."

As conservative and liberal rhetoric and  propaganda increased, the Lord directed me to Paul's letter to the church at Rome:

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

Rom 13:1-2, NIV

If Paul could write those words while subject to persecution at the hands of Roman emperors like Nero, surely we could trust Him to get us through this election, no matter what. And then, the "unthinkable" occurred. We elected a *gasp* Democrat. A liberal Democrat, a black Democrat, a Democrat who has freely admitted he didn't accept Christ until he was in his adulthood! Accusations flew. Dirty politics got even dirtier, and we didn't think that was possible.

Two and a half years later, I'm more concerned about the state of church than ever before. Almost daily I receive emails, FB posts and links from fellow believers whose focus seems to be turned almost exclusively toward America's political regime. Some of these are saturated with hatred. Others with fear. All with absolute assurance that the only administration God would appoint over the U.S. would be one from a specific political party, persuasion, or platform. Nothing I've heard or received has encouraged or supported prayer and faith directed toward the current administration. Do we believe Romans 13, or not?


Many of the Jews who followed Jesus, including those who accompanied Him into Jerusalem on what we now call Palm Sunday, expected Him to be the solution to their political problems, to restore power and authority as they believed God intended. No one expected Him to be crucified between two thieves less than a week after His triumphal entry. Bible commentators have written about the disappointment and frustration evident even among the disciples closest to Him when it became apparent He wasn't going to rise up politically and/or militarily and take back the government of Israel. Some have suggested that Judas' betrayal was a wild attempt to "force" Jesus to step up and take what most of His followers believed to be His place. How many of those who had followed Him when all was well fell away, discouraged and disillusioned, when Roman rule carried on as usual after the resurrection?

Are we making the same mistake? Are we looking to changes in our our political system for our salvation from current circumstances? Are we secretly believing that having the "right" person in the presidency or the "right" party in control of the House and/or Senate will ease our socio-economic woes, solve the international crises we face around the planet, fix the unusually ugly weather we keep seeing, and bring gas prices back to "normal"?

Do we really believe one political party is somehow closer to God than the other? The Pharisees and Saducees (Jewish sects, the equivalent of our political parties) each believed they were right, and were the answer for all Israel's problems. Both were wrong.

We must be careful. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our economy is God's economy. We are, as believers, members of the household of God. To place our trust, our faith, our expectations, in any man or system of man, is to set ourselves up for disappointment. Are the results of our faith, our prayers, our believing, affected by which political party has control of Congress? I certainly hope not.


My God is bigger than that.

Niki is apparently a hard name to spell. My own grandmother never got it right, but I kept her birthday cards anyway. 

The long-time leader of Libya has engendered a spelling nightmare for journalists, writers, bloggers, and the general public. The general public, of course, creates spelling nightmares all by themselves, but I digress. 

photo by quapan	via PhotoRee

Part of the trouble comes from transliterating Arabic—which has its own alphabet—into English. It's like trying to explain to a guitar player the notes on a piano. Not only are the notes presented differently on paper, they sound different.

Back in the late 1980's (the last time Libya made big headlines) their leader signed his name "Moammar El-Gadhafi" in a letter to Minnesota second-graders. (Why Mr. Gadhafi wrote to second-grade students in Minnesota is a whole 'nother subject.)

In 2009, ABC News posted 112 different spellings used by various media sources, print and online. Since the recent Libyan rebel uprising, I'm quite sure more versions have been created. Even the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times aren't in agreement. The WSJ uses a “g” and includes an "h," while the NYT uses a “q” without the "h."

Can you say "confusion"? C.O.N.F.U.S.I.O.N. 
In my job as a copyeditor at our small weekly paper, we aim for consistency. If you can't be consistently right (because there is no official "right" or "wrong") then at least be consistent with whatever you choose to use, even if it 's not correct. How painfully typical of English grammar ... and Christianity.

It's frustrating to admit that everything in the world around us isn't perfectly black and white. Whether we're talking about personal application of spiritual truth or how to spell the name of a foreign leader ... we want to know that we are "right" and we want everyone else to agree with our "rightness."

But editing, like life, is horrifically

photo by Bah Humbug	via PhotoRee

subjective. It's the infamous "tomato, to-mah-to" debate. Our individual perception—based on our personal history and experience—creates our reality and our sense of right and wrong. In your world the leader of Libya is Col. Muammar Abu Minyar al-Qadhafi (the usage preferred by the CIA world fact book). In my world, it might be Moammar El Gadhafi or simply, "that guy in Libya who sounds as crazy as Charlie Sheen."

However you choose to spell the Libyan leader's name, it's important to remember God's law of love supercedes every other rule, every other guideline, every doctrine of man. And it is His law of love to which we are indebted in Christ. Have you prayed for the leader of Libya lately?

Lord, You said we should pray for those who are in authority. This man, whose name YOU know, has ruled the nation of Libya for many years. Now we pray, Lord, that Your divine will may be accomplished there, that righteousness would rule and reign, and that mercy would triumph over judgment. Lord, we believe according to Your Word that you place men in authority according to Your will, and so we pray for Your will to be done as it is done in heaven. In the name of Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, amen. 

"Do to others as you would have them do to you." - The Golden Rule.
 It's part of Jesus' famous discourse known as the Sermon on the Mount. In it, He talks about a lot of things modern believers in America don't like to apply to daily living. Things like "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy," and "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God," and "whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also," and "love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."
That's HARD stuff. Stuff that doesn't come naturally to our humanity.
From the time we're toddlers, our human nature inclines itself toward "do to others AS they have done to you" or "do to others BEFORE they do to you." 
So how do you apply these instructions from Jesus when it comes to current events? When it comes to, say, health care, immigration reform, or this week's media tempest: building a mosque near the site Ground Zero in Manhattan.
The Golden Rule is one of the most basic statements in scripture. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a theologian to figure out Christ's meaning or intent: Treat other people the way you WANT to be treated. In other words, if you wouldn't want it done to you, don't do it to them. Ya know, that might simplify all these decisions and questions and policy-making debates, if we'd just put it into practice.

I'm tired of mean people.
From the president to the local pastor, our society seems to have decided to "take the gloves off" when it comes to expressing disagreement with someone's life, ministry, service, opinion, political party, or behavior.

Just a few weeks ago I started following a blog about frugal living. (Under $1000 Per Month) Much to my surprise, one of the posts last week was the blogger's announcement that she was considering quitting blogging because of vicious personal attacks in the comment section. This isn't a blog about politics, religion, or sex. It's a personal chronicle of one family's attempts to live a frugal lifestyle. The comments ranged from slightly snippy to downright cruel and threatening. No one FORCED these folks to read her blog. They didn't pay to read her posts, and she has no authority over them, yet they felt perfectly justified in launching a volley of verbal abuse her way. Why? Because they disagreed with something she said?

Then I read a post from Brandilyn Collins, whose suspense writing and Christian testimony I admire. She received a letter from a reader berating a book she and her daughter wrote together. Now, the individual could have stopped with, "I didn't like this book," (although why we need to tell a writer we disliked their book is a mystery to me, they already wrote it, published it, and can't do anything about it), the person continued with a personal attack on Brandilyn's faith, her parenting ability, and her Christian witness. Yikes!

My kids (who are stubbornly opinionated about everything) are frequently involved in heated political debates on Facebook with their cousins and their cousins' friends. Is that bad? No.

We do still live in a free country, the last time I checked, and we still have the right to freedom of speech. But when an adult woman gets involved in said debate between teenagers and resorts to name-calling and personal attacks because she doesn't like their political opinions, something's wrong.

When someone thinks it's acceptable to hang an effigy of the president in a building in Georgia, and the comments following the news story say things like "too bad it wasn't the real thing," and "the only way to solve this problem is with another civil war," something is dreadfully wrong with our nation.

When I was little and threw a temper tantrum my mother would send me to my room with the admonition, "Don't come out until you can be civil." 

To be "civil" means to be courteous and polite. It's interesting that the words civilization and citizen are directly related to the word civil, and the word polite and political have the same roots. Courtesy is the act of being kind and considerate of another.

Can we express our disapproval of a situation, our disagreement with a position or opinion, in a civil manner? Or must we resort to name-calling, stick-throwing, Neanderthal methods of self-expression? Add to that the use of foul (and frequently misspelled) language and the picture of our culture today becomes one of a society of  poorly educated, out-of-control, angry people who resort to abuse and manipulation and lies in order to prove that they are "right."

A minister whose teaching I enjoy once said that if your highest calling in life is to attack other people, that's a very low level of living indeed. Another minister said since the devil is referred to in Revelation as "the accuser of the brethren," we ought to take care not to get lumped into the same category.


Let's rise up to a higher standard than the one set by brawling toddlers and dog packs.
Let's be civil to each other. We're all old enough to know what that means.

~Niki