It’s no secret to those closest to me that I voted for George W. Bush two times (2000 and 2004)… and then for Barack Obama in 2008. And I am not alone among my generation. There is a great HOPE for our future… but not because of any singular individual… but because it is time that for the collective Church in America to meet the challenges of this generation with the HOPE that we have discovered in Christ. Today is not about politics for me…
Today my heart is filled with HOPE.
I am hopeful about the future of the United States of America.
I am hopeful about the future of the Church in North America.
I am honored to live in a Nation that that emphasizes sacrifice.
I am overjoyed to know that MY President is an African-American, and that WE voted him into that office.
I feel more patriotic on this day than in any other day of my life… with exception to the weeks immediately following September 11th of 2001.
I feel more convicted than ever that this HOPE we need is not based in the inconsistent nature of humanity… but in the security of a God who is Creating, Sacrificing, Securing, Speaking, Breathing, Loving, Reaching, and Restoring.
May the Lord be honored, above all, in these events on this day. And may His People rise to serve His Name as never before among this generation that is riddled with the desperation of hopelessness. There is no limit to the love that is required of those who live to serve the One. May our words be His. May our mission be His. May our social action be prevalent as we live His Love. May our words communicate His Heart. May our actions share His peace that “surpasses all understanding”. May our love be His Love. May our lives share the HOPE that is ours in Christ Jesus.
On this day we gather because we have chosen HOPE over FEAR… -B.Obama, Inaugural Acceptance Speech, 20th of January, 2009
May this HOPE work its way from the unstable and erratic flow of emotion… to peace… to action… to justice… to love…
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.:rweaver:.
As an American mother I choose NOT to raise my children in fear of what our government may become. I choose to teach them to trust in the mercy, goodness, and justice of our great God. I love my country… I will teach my children to do the same. I choose to actively teach my children the importance and blessing of serving others with the love of Christ. They will be allowed to live IN the world as Christ did.
On this day I am grateful for our freedom, as well as our new president. I am thankful to be raising my children in the United States of America. And yes… I too am filled with Hope!
“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.”
Edward Mote
I love your hope for our church as whole body and as a nation. Living in a nation of sacrifice is good but least us not not forget that our sacrifice here in America is no where close to the sacrifice of others around the world or of Christ.
Happy Inauguration Day.
You’re definitely not alone; I too cast my first two presidential ballots for GWB and then my third for BHO.
Reading your other remarks, it occurs to me that, while it is possible to be both a Christian and an pessimist, there is something rather unnatural about that combination and if a Christian is anything but an optimist (at least on the larger scales) he or she has probably made a considerable error in thinking about the Divine. Or so it seems to me, anyway; I shall have to think further about this.
Thank you for your thoughts. It’s an honor to have your comments recorded here on my blog.
The words above were written in the midst of inspiration while I was watching the Inauguration at Viva Espresso today. I am thankful to be both an American and a Christ-follower. I am also a confessing realist… and a sucker for impassioned hope.
After I posted this blog… I was reflecting on my emotions from this day… and was immediately reminded of a song by Dashboard Confessional (entitled “Vindicated”) that communicates my thoughts about the hope that I have been pondering since this morning…
“Hope dangles on a string
Like slow spinning redemption
Winding in and winding out
The shine of it has caught my eye
And roped me in
So mesmerizing, so hypnotizing
I am captivated”