Ensign: Some Thoughts For The People's Consideration
All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 11 November 2016
WORD COUNT: 15,839
When Abraham Lincoln first became President of the United States, his Secretary of State who like many members of his cabinet was before Lincoln's election much better known than he came to him with a paper titled "Some Thoughts For The President's Consideration". It was a subtle dig on the eve of the Civil War that Seward thought (he'd already been a New York state Senator, a U.S. Senator, and governor of New York, versus Lincoln's one term in the U.S. House of Representatives and a string of electoral defeats) even though Lincoln was President that he could do a better job shaping policy than his boss.
He, Lincoln, more than met the challenge.
He appreciated Seward's input and told him so, but Lincoln established that HE was President and he was the one who'd dictate policy from the White House. I would like to think our subsequent history has borne out that he was mostly right. And outside their official capacities, Lincoln and Seward became good friends. I write this from an American point of view regarding Tuesday's election; at least, the one election that seems to have the attention of people the world over. (There were various state offices and ballot measures here in North Dakota from which I write, and I may come back to their impact another day.)
Yes, it was a shock.
Almost a ménage à trois of 1948, 1980, and 1860 (the election in which Lincoln above became President) was this election, in the syntax of Yoda. So certain are you? And as far as we can tell right now, opinions and viewpoints are divided among extremes on both sides, progressives and populists alike. And those of us who saw and continue to see voting as casting our choice for the lesser of two evils, realizing we're still going to wake up and tomorrow will be a matter of providing for our families and living out as abundant a life as we can and letting others see God in us ... often we're caught in the middle.
We're veterans of that.
Although Veterans Day today is especially to honor men and women past and present who have served this country in uniform, every one of us -- every man, woman, and child of us -- is a veteran of failure. Whether it's trying and failing to achieve an goal we've spent days, months, weeks, years working for or trying and failing to convince others to accept our points of view ... some people can get crazy when you don't accept it. Here's the problem: ridicule and abuse will never get someone to agree with you or me, and no matter how elevated your status is in life, what you say can hurt, but what you can say is never going to matter or last as much as what you do.
Joshua 24:15.
"But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Serving the LORD is not necessarily doing what makes people, even the ones closest to us or even the ones governing us, happy and satisfied with us. We cannot make anyone else make the choices that we do to speak our for or against a person we favor or serve the LORD the way we think they should. The way we do, or at least try to do in my case. I've heard enough claims of divine intervention thrown around both ways leading up to last Tuesday that I'm quite honestly a little disgusted. Perhaps we would do better if instead of focusing on making our nation better we would focus on making ourselves better first.
For me and my house (and for you and yours),
David
P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages us too! If it's not or you want me to get lost, please let me know. Thank you.
Thank YOU, Lord, that we can come to you in prayer and that we can count on You to provide for all our needs, even when we don't know what they are. And let us come to You in prayer for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and all over the world.
Thank You as well, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You by Your Son Our Brother, Jesus Christ.
And I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 11 November 2016
WORD COUNT: 15,839
When Abraham Lincoln first became President of the United States, his Secretary of State who like many members of his cabinet was before Lincoln's election much better known than he came to him with a paper titled "Some Thoughts For The President's Consideration". It was a subtle dig on the eve of the Civil War that Seward thought (he'd already been a New York state Senator, a U.S. Senator, and governor of New York, versus Lincoln's one term in the U.S. House of Representatives and a string of electoral defeats) even though Lincoln was President that he could do a better job shaping policy than his boss.
He, Lincoln, more than met the challenge.
He appreciated Seward's input and told him so, but Lincoln established that HE was President and he was the one who'd dictate policy from the White House. I would like to think our subsequent history has borne out that he was mostly right. And outside their official capacities, Lincoln and Seward became good friends. I write this from an American point of view regarding Tuesday's election; at least, the one election that seems to have the attention of people the world over. (There were various state offices and ballot measures here in North Dakota from which I write, and I may come back to their impact another day.)
Yes, it was a shock.
Almost a ménage à trois of 1948, 1980, and 1860 (the election in which Lincoln above became President) was this election, in the syntax of Yoda. So certain are you? And as far as we can tell right now, opinions and viewpoints are divided among extremes on both sides, progressives and populists alike. And those of us who saw and continue to see voting as casting our choice for the lesser of two evils, realizing we're still going to wake up and tomorrow will be a matter of providing for our families and living out as abundant a life as we can and letting others see God in us ... often we're caught in the middle.
We're veterans of that.
Although Veterans Day today is especially to honor men and women past and present who have served this country in uniform, every one of us -- every man, woman, and child of us -- is a veteran of failure. Whether it's trying and failing to achieve an goal we've spent days, months, weeks, years working for or trying and failing to convince others to accept our points of view ... some people can get crazy when you don't accept it. Here's the problem: ridicule and abuse will never get someone to agree with you or me, and no matter how elevated your status is in life, what you say can hurt, but what you can say is never going to matter or last as much as what you do.
Joshua 24:15.
"But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Serving the LORD is not necessarily doing what makes people, even the ones closest to us or even the ones governing us, happy and satisfied with us. We cannot make anyone else make the choices that we do to speak our for or against a person we favor or serve the LORD the way we think they should. The way we do, or at least try to do in my case. I've heard enough claims of divine intervention thrown around both ways leading up to last Tuesday that I'm quite honestly a little disgusted. Perhaps we would do better if instead of focusing on making our nation better we would focus on making ourselves better first.
For me and my house (and for you and yours),
David
P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages us too! If it's not or you want me to get lost, please let me know. Thank you.
Thank YOU, Lord, that we can come to you in prayer and that we can count on You to provide for all our needs, even when we don't know what they are. And let us come to You in prayer for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and all over the world.
Thank You as well, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You by Your Son Our Brother, Jesus Christ.
And I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.
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