Archives For Obama

Sovereignty

Chris —  January 26, 2009

I’ve just finished reading my third presidential bio, David McCollugh’s Truman.  Truman’s life experience is so vast that he is hard to categorize.  He was the true American.  I rural farmer, a war hero, a small business owner, a machine politician, and accidental president.  He was a husband, father, letter writer and friend.  He dealt with perhaps the most difficult decisions of the century, using the atomic bomb in Japan, but not in Korea.  But despite experiencing more than most of us do in a hundred lifetimes, he seems a simple, humble and gracious man.

Reading Truman is to me the clearest non-biblical example that God places the rulers of our world where he wants them, when he wants them there.  I can see no good reason Truman became President, but I cannot imagine a better man for the job.  Obama is barely into completing his first week in office, and he has already done things to make us crow and to make us cringe. Looking at history reminds me that no matter what “the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes.”

A Peaceful Transition

Chris —  January 18, 2009

My roommate Trevor has been watching HBO’s Rome. It’s about Julius Caesar dismantling the Republic and becoming Emperor. We’ve seen similar demonstrations: countries whose military might is constantly fighting over who is in control. But I don’t think that’s what is going to happen on Tuesday.

I’m not a “proud to be an American” kind of guy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s just that my kingdom is not of this world. But some things do make me proud, like that fact that trough 44 presidents and over 200 years of history America history we have had one successful transition of power after another.

It’s easy to look back at Obama’s election and feel like it’s inevitable. But think about where what’s really happening: We’re going from 8 years of Republican rule to a Democratic president; From the man who rode into DC on the backs of the Religious Right, to the man who created a new generation of liberals. Then there’s the little part of being the first Black president in American history.

What we’re talking about here is PARADIGM shift.

On Tuesday, it will happen–peacefully. There will be parties. Police might even get called in. But I think we can count on it being generally peaceful. The fact that the Americans can go through a total paradigm shift, and do it without shedding blood, makes me proud to be an American.