Mountaintop Musings: Real hope for real change

With the elections behind us it is time to celebrate! Yes, no more attack ads, the road-side placards are removed and the political phone calls have ceased! The people have spoken, and it seems once again we voted for “change”.

It was a little over 10 years ago that the people voted for “change”, and we got a President who for the first time was a black man. With his election President Obama made more promises than a Chicago politician could ever live up (or down) to. For many it was a great delusion, for others great disappointment. Needless to say, no matter what side of the political spectrum you are one, those eight years were a great disappointment. The “transparent” administration took distortion of truth, outright lies, illegal programs, and violation of our privacy to incredible new heights. The world looked upon the United States with contempt and our allies wondered who we really were. It is still a mess I think, and will continue to be so.

So we have had a Republican controlled Congress, my response is “So what?” We had this twenty years ago and they really failed to make change. One of the many reasons the Republicans lost the House was their failure to have a concise plan to support the President and the people who elected him. Do we think that the political machines that control things will really partner together? Is the performance of Congress going to make a dramatic shift in passing bills and getting the President to sign them? I think not. Sure, we will have more laws, executive orders and bills, but what will that mean to the moral fabric of our families? Will any of these leaders stand up for truth? Will our borders and culture be secure? What about our absent foreign policy and influence? Now with a divided Congress, the impotence will only increase and the rancor and investigations grow. Whatever happened to governing for the good of the People?

If our leaders are going to make real, lasting and significant change they really need a good, old-fashioned history lesson. If we want God-honoring change let’s go back. Back to the worldview, principles and vision that our Separatist (individuals of the Puritan heritage also known as Pilgrims) forefathers who came over on the Mayflower had. It was a worldview in which the laws, values, principles and God of the Bible were held in the highest esteem. Those 40 Separatists, who travelled over on the Mayflower with 62 other colonists, pledged their lives and family’s future to one another, under the rule of Almighty God, and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They had a vision to start a country that would honor God above all else; above all politics, kings, rule and authority.

These people had hope. Hope for a better future, not just in eternity, but while living out their lives. Like us today they had hope for better days. Hope for their children, and grandchildren, and future generations. I don’t want anyone to think I am a pessimist, because I am not. I do think I am a realist though. I think our solution is based on having hope. Hope for a better society. Hope for improved economic opportunity. Hope for improved family structure and harmony. Hope for truth, honesty and integrity in ourselves and our neighbors.

The fact that only 53 survived the first winter did not eliminate their hope. Without help from the area’s native peoples, it is likely that none of the colonists would have survived. An English-speaking Pawtuxet named Samoset helped the colonists form an alliance with the local Wampanoags, who taught them how to hunt local animals, gather shellfish and grow corn, beans and squash.

With all the trouble in our country we need hope that is real, able to be lived out and based on reality, not campaign promises, community-organizing rhetoric. The Bible says a lot about hope. Psalm 31:24 says, “Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.” Here hope has the idea of patiently waiting and trusting in the LORD. Lamentations 3: 26 says, “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.” The word hope here is the same as in Psalm 31:24 only with an increased emphasis on expectantly hoping for God to act.

The Colonists had great hope in the LORD, in God. They had to. Their three-week journey took eight weeks in late fall and early winter. Their leader William Bradford, after surviving the arduous Atlantic crossing, had his wife Dorothy fall off the Mayflower and drown while he was with a group exploring the area for a location to settle. The Pilgrims, as they became to be known, were having shelter, food and health problems in the extreme. When the Captain of the Mayflower set out on his return voyage in the spring of 1621 he implored them to return with him. Of course they refused.

As God’s people, they were people of hope. They lived out the truth of Romans 15:13, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” So even though we have lots of conflict, turmoil and upheaval in the financial, social and moral realms of our country, those of us who by faith has received Jesus Christ as Savior should be the most hopeful of all people.

I hope you have trusted the God of all hope and comfort to walk with you through these days of uncertainty. Like the Separatists who founded Plymouth Colony, and started this country out on its magnificent journey I pray you will discover that God has a great plan for your life, and that plan has Jesus at its center.

Thanks for reading this column and feel free to call me any time.

(Dave & Lisa Carroll are area missionaries with InFaith, America’s oldest Christian home mission agency. You can contact Dave at 406.459.8935 or [email protected])