Dislike // Sins // Idols
I meant to write this a few days ago because I already knew what I was going to say, but time slipped by me and I didn't do it. So now the election has passed and I am still to write.
I don't like Donald Trump.
I don't like Hillary Clinton.
I don't know them as people, but from what I've seen of both of them, they are corrupt, immoral people. They are just like me.
I want my heroes and leaders to be people who aren't just like me or at least don't look it. I don't want to see the filthy bag of garbage my favorite writers or artists carry around. I want to pretend that they don't sin. With this particular set of people, it is impossible to turn the usual blind eye to the stench of their rotting lives, and the putrid smell that fills my nostrils is too familiar. It shows me my sin a little too much. I am not saying that they haven't done terrible things, but I have too. In the end they are just people. In the end America is just a country.
On Sunday the sermon was on Isaiah 6. I love this chapter for I am a woman of unclean lips in a nation of unclean lips. On Sunday, I learned about the reign of King Uzziah. He was a good King, but he he thought he was worthy of entering the presence of God, worthy of something above his call. How often do I think that it is my own doing and not utter and complete grace that allows me to enter into the presence of God? How often do I think higher of myself than I am. As I make my way slowly through Ephesians, Paul reminds me of my state before Christ. Rotting flesh. Dead. Unable to do anything.
I think of Jack-o-lanterns. Not the fresh cut pumpkins on Halloween night, but how they are now. The once orange flesh is black with decay. The stench fills the air with the tangible scent of death. That was me. I was dead and rotting, hopeless and with no ability to revive myself. How often do I forget where I was not too long ago? I see the sin in my life and point to people like Trump and Clinton and think, "I could be worse", but then I remember that was me, and when I get into my sin patterns that is me.
On Sunday, we talked about idols. I always brush off idolatry because I don't worship other gods. I don't have idols, except, I do. Putting my hope in anything other than my God is idolizing whatever that thing is. If I hope that Clinton or Trump wins, when does the electoral system become an idol? When am I trusting America more than God? If I am putting my trust in the value of the American dollar and my husband's hard work, am I trusting that God will provide or imagining that if God were taken out of the equation we would be doing just fine? Do I idolize stability? I have these mental safety nets of all the things I put my hope in before trusting in God and that's not the way it should be. I trust God. I want to trust God completely.
I don't like Donald Trump.
I don't like Hillary Clinton.
I don't know them as people, but from what I've seen of both of them, they are corrupt, immoral people. They are just like me.
I want my heroes and leaders to be people who aren't just like me or at least don't look it. I don't want to see the filthy bag of garbage my favorite writers or artists carry around. I want to pretend that they don't sin. With this particular set of people, it is impossible to turn the usual blind eye to the stench of their rotting lives, and the putrid smell that fills my nostrils is too familiar. It shows me my sin a little too much. I am not saying that they haven't done terrible things, but I have too. In the end they are just people. In the end America is just a country.
On Sunday the sermon was on Isaiah 6. I love this chapter for I am a woman of unclean lips in a nation of unclean lips. On Sunday, I learned about the reign of King Uzziah. He was a good King, but he he thought he was worthy of entering the presence of God, worthy of something above his call. How often do I think that it is my own doing and not utter and complete grace that allows me to enter into the presence of God? How often do I think higher of myself than I am. As I make my way slowly through Ephesians, Paul reminds me of my state before Christ. Rotting flesh. Dead. Unable to do anything.
I think of Jack-o-lanterns. Not the fresh cut pumpkins on Halloween night, but how they are now. The once orange flesh is black with decay. The stench fills the air with the tangible scent of death. That was me. I was dead and rotting, hopeless and with no ability to revive myself. How often do I forget where I was not too long ago? I see the sin in my life and point to people like Trump and Clinton and think, "I could be worse", but then I remember that was me, and when I get into my sin patterns that is me.
On Sunday, we talked about idols. I always brush off idolatry because I don't worship other gods. I don't have idols, except, I do. Putting my hope in anything other than my God is idolizing whatever that thing is. If I hope that Clinton or Trump wins, when does the electoral system become an idol? When am I trusting America more than God? If I am putting my trust in the value of the American dollar and my husband's hard work, am I trusting that God will provide or imagining that if God were taken out of the equation we would be doing just fine? Do I idolize stability? I have these mental safety nets of all the things I put my hope in before trusting in God and that's not the way it should be. I trust God. I want to trust God completely.
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