Listen to One King or the Other

Has anyone seen Superman? What about that Easy Button from the commercial? Maybe we can call the IT guy and get a reset?

For many folks, 2020 has been a pretty trying year. Folks who follow politics, whether in support of the President or the Speaker of the House, started the year on pins and needles waiting on delivery of the Articles of Impeachment. Madame Pelosi’s supporters cheered as she controlled the narrative. Since then, Mr. Trump’s supporters have rubbed their nose in the step-by-step dismantling of the Russia collusion story.

Just when we began recovering from Washington fatigue, Dr. Fauci convinced our governors to lock us in. On one hand, we praised the responsible care of at-risk populations. On the other we lost businesses and livelihoods as stores closed – some never to reopen. Some cried foul, claiming the nature and construct of the biphasic virus mirrored that of weaponized anthrax. They reported American soldiers and contractors who received the anthrax series in the 90’s and 00’s were immune. (That public report has disappeared.) Others told us herd immunity was our savior.

As the sun rose higher in the sky and the temperatures joined it, we began to emerge from quarantine a bid disheveled, a little less stable, squinting against the brightness of the day – half a year lost. We started to work towards a new normal, but then businesses were looted, police precincts were abandoned only to be burned and occupied, and governors and councils began signing short-sighted reforms that promise to appease historical, much maligned cries for equality.

Where is that reset button again?

Christians, I hate to tell you, but there isn’t one. As pleasant as it would be to go back a few months – or even a few years – God never intended for us to escape our troubles. Rather, He fully intended on troubles improving our walk with Him. He wants us – all of us – to be accountable for our actions (Jas 5:16), to unselfishly hold others (our neighbor) in higher regard than we do ourselves (Mark 12:31). He also fully intended on us going through the trials, not around them. His intent is for us to learn from them.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” (Psa 23:4, BSB)

So, then why 2020? Why one calamity after another?

Consider 2020 as the antithesis of 2001. The attack on the Twin Towers that devastated a generation of Americans brought us together. Republicans and Democrats, Jews and Christians, men and women, Black and White stood together in defiance of a great evil. We lost over 3,000 Americans – but we stood tall, united. We questioned God’s plan, His presence, and His goodness. Alan Jackson sang a dirge that asked “where were you when the world stopped turnin’”[1] while Toby Keith captured our rebel spirit, praising our military’s response.[2] And in response to America screaming “God where were you?” Stacy Randall wrote, “Meet Me In The Stairwell.” In 2001, we were united.

Fast forward nearly 20 years and Republicans and Democrats would just as soon poison each other’s water as they would agree on even the simplest truths. Jews and Christians still get along, but both point fingers at Muslims as the cause of so much pain. Men and women aren’t the only two choices anymore and John Boyega summed up current race relations in a Tweet I won’t reference here due to language and vitriol. (He’s not wrong, only his perspective is limited to one side of the argument.) We’re at each other’s throats – divided – hateful.

Can’t we go back to Tommy Lee Jones and LA’s “Volcano” of 1997 when the little boy said, “Look at their faces. They all look the same.”[3]

No, unfortunately we cannot. What we can do is recognize God’s plan for what it is and get on board, hopefully sooner rather than later. We know how we as Americans react when we are assaulted head on, but now we get to find out how we react when we are driven apart.

“As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” (Prov 27:17, NKJV)

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal 6:2, NKJV)

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Phil 2:3-4, NIV)

So, even though we can’t hit the reset button, and no actual Easy Button exists, maybe we can admit that we’ve been here before, that we’ve gotten through this before. Maybe, if we are honest with ourselves, we can admit that God has to teach us the same lesson over and over, not because He likes repeating Himself, but because, like the Israelites rejecting the mana, our gratitude and memory are both short lived. So, for today, in a 2020 we’d just as soon wipe from the history books, in the indelible words of Rodney King…

“Can we all just get along?”[4]

(Photo: mercurynews.com)

[1] Jackson, A. (2001). Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning). Nashville, TN, USA.

[2] Keith, T. (2003). American Soldier. Nashville, TN, USA.

[3] Jackson, M. (1997). Volcano. Los Angeles, CA, USA.

[4] Rodney King pled for an end of violence on May 1, 1992 following the Los Angeles race riots that resulted from acquittal of four police officers who violated King’s rights purportedly on the basis of his being black.