Why the next President will save America

in ,

Let me be completely upfront about one thing… I'm happily entertained by Donald Trump. Like everyone else in the world, I’ve been intrigued with him. For me, it started at a family hangout months ago when someone made a joke about him that was met with resounding, “Hey, wait a minute, he’s the only one with the guts to say what everyone else is thinking!” And I was confused. People like Donald Trump. 

And I’m reminded: American politics are surprising and crazy. 

Here are three thoughts to keep us sane during this primary and election season...

The next President will save America.

Hyperbole? Consider the situation... we’re coming off eight years of a very different type of President, with a nation of millennials who don’t know who they are or what it takes to earn what we have, producing a national identity-crisis. Strong leadership is the only way forward. And the next President will have the opportunity like Washington and FDR to set the broken bones of our country straight. The only hope we have is a President that will tackle immigration, health care, education, foreign policy, a broken tax code, etc. But he (or she) will do it. They will save America.

The next President won’t save America.

OK, to be honest, as I’m growing older and having watched a few of these election cycles come and go, then evaluated the Presidencies that follow these elections, the more I’m convinced that it doesn’t matter who is in the White House... big corporate spenders and lobbyists will have their way. All the more, we’re a nation of immigrants who work hard and want to succeed, and we’ll do so in spite of who is in the oval office. I used to think the President was powerful. Now I realize he’s just the guy who has to deal with the problems, and hope something gets done. So no matter who we elect, one thing’s for certain, we’re sending someone to a dismal island where they’ll age in stress and fatigue, burdened by the idea of progress.

The next President can’t save America.

This is the truth. While I love America and our political system of democracy, I don’t look to the person in the Oval Office as my identity or my true leader. I look to him (or her) as simply my President. The one who has been imperfectly chosen by us imperfect citizens through an imperfect system to run an imperfect country trying to "form a more perfect union.” And while every term or two, the name on the desk might change, I’m reminded that the guy I’ve already placed my trust in is ruling already from a higher office with more wisdom and a whole heck of a lot more power than anything found on this earth. So no matter what happens in Washington, my guy’s already sworn in as the King. 

So here’s to a season of being informed voters. And here’s to a season of not being swept up in the false emotionalism of politics where we lose our minds.  

Michael Hyatt on Reading Real Books

in

One of my very few, but very ambitious goals for this year is to read 52 books in 52 weeks. Michael Hyatt recently posted about why he switched from ebooks to physical books. He writes, 

“My goal for 2015 was to read twenty-six books. I ended up only finishing twelve. Worse, I actually bought 106 new books.”
— Michael Hyatt

Not only was it the format of the book (digital or physical) changed his consistency in reading, but also the fact that it’s hard to ignore books that actually take up space on your nightstand, or your desk, and not just live within an app. 

As I’m going through this journey to do so much reading, one of the expected, yet still surprising revelations is that I still read for my degree and I read for my job more than I read for myself. I still find myself struggling to make more margin in my life to read, even though I’m accomplishing the goal I set out to accomplish. Some things are just too important, I guess.  

But bottom line, I think I agree with Michael, and I have a few on the nightstand right now. Sometimes I think they're mocking me.

52 for 52: Cornelius Platinga's "Engaging God's World"

Truth be told, I didn't already own this book before I jumped into this book-a-week marathon. But I also didn't purchase it - it was reading provided to assist our teaching team at Bethel for our Christmas services. We decided to share the Gospel story this past Christmas from the metanarrative of God's work in history. So each week, we laid out God's creation, the Fall, Redemption, and Reconstitution. 

From previous weeks, NT Wright's assertion in his book How God Became King would suggest that Plantinga misses the essential element of Israel's history. And truth be told, when I was preaching this series, I did have a moment's hesitation in moving so quickly from Genesis 3 to Luke 2. One of the complexities of three 35 minute messages to cover Creation, Fall, and Redemption. 

As to the work itself, Plantinga gives a succinct and understandable treatment of how God created the world and how things have gone awry. I would recommend this book for anyone looking for the primer or starting point on the Christian worldview, for sure.

52 for 52: Philip Ryken's "What is the Christian Worldview"

The second installment of books I read for Christmas services was this one, by Wheaton College President Philip Ryken. His Christian Worldview book, which is more of a long pamphlet, to be honest, was excellent. I breezed through it in no time, and found his explanations and illustrations to be informed, helpful, and to the point. I think if you boil down Plantinga, you get this. 

Ryken organizes this work into the four categories that we preached on, which also helped me digest this week-by-week. Anyone looking to make sense of the world could benefit from the two hours it takes to read this book. 

 

Up Next: Jesus Without Borders and Global Theology: An Evangelical Perspective
... you can see I'm not doing too well with "reading outside my tribe..." That's coming, though. I promise.