Toys

I’ve just about quit listening to the news. I listen to about 20 minutes at night and then that’s it. They have 20 minutes to analyze the mess we’re in and then their mothers can watch the rest of their show. When you look at the crazy people running a handful of other countries and the fact that I don’t feel real safe with our commander in chief right now, that is not a good combination.

It’s like the time we were flying to California. We had reached cruising altitude and the pilot came on and said, “Good afternoon. This is Victoria Thompson…” I cannot remember the rest of her little speech. I had grabbed both arms and was halfway out of my seat with a soundless, “WHAT?” I realize women are incredibly good pilots but if my plane gets in trouble, I want a man wrestling it to the ground. I want a big huge fireman carrying me out of a blazing building. I want a big hairy US Marine whacking through the jungle to rescue me from the guerrilla fighters. I’m sorry; that is just my comfort zone.

However, I personally think if women were running the world, it would be a much more peaceful place. We’re good at settling disputes, at separating warring parties before the fight escalates to hand to hand combat or throwing things whether bats, gloves or bombs. If it’s not resolvable, we can issue a threat that is guaranteed to produce a truce that sticks because they know they are dead meat if they break it. So it evens out.

I got an email yesterday entitled “Toys” and it contained 46 pictures of the U.S. arsenal of weapons. There were bombers with bombs lined up in front of them, bombers dropping bombs, fighter jets, fighter jets shooting missiles, helicopters shooting big guns, helicopters landing troops, loading troops, cruisers, aircraft carriers, big guns, bigger guns, enormous guns. After 46 pictures, all I could think of was whose baby was either flying it, dropping the bombs or shooting it in the desert. I don’t think that was the intended response. I think I was supposed to say, “Wow” or if at a loss for words, at least feel safe with all that metal and firepower aimed the other direction.

I thought of Psalm 33. “The king (the U.S.) is not saved by a mighty army; a warrior (Marine) is not delivered by great strength. A horse (a tank) is a false hope for victory; nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness.”

His eye is on us. Is that enough? Or do I want “His eye is on us and He won’t let anybody hurt us.”

I was reading Philip Yancey’s The Jesus I Never Knew. For some reason, I’ve been slogging through this one although What’s so Amazing About Grace was such a great book, I finished it and immediately started at the first and read through it again in case I’d missed something. But the reason I think I’ve continued was for this part….

“Those of us who follow Jesus thus possess a kind of dual citizenship. We live in an external kingdom of family and cities and nationhood, while at the same time belonging to the kingdom of God. “

“We have seen vivid demonstrations of the clash of kingdoms in our own time. In communist countries, the government forced the Christian church to go underground so that it became quite literally, invisible. … Yet despite this government oppression, a spiritual revival broke out that could well be the largest in the history of the church. As many as fifty million believers gave their allegiance to an invisible kingdom even as the visible kingdom made them suffer for it.”

“Ironically, if the United States is truly sliding down a slippery moral slope, that may better allow the church, as it did in Rome and also in China, to set up a ‘new sign’…which is full of promise.” He said of course we prefer the moral and social climate of the 1950’s. “But if that environment does not return, I will not lose any sleep. As America slides, I will work and pray for the kingdom of God to advance. If the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church, the contemporary political scene hardly offers much threat.”

Makes you sit up in bed and quit reading.

What is our goal, to make Americans follow our rules? Or is it to introduce them to the kingdom of God and watch as He changes hearts and lives and transfers them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light? Do we see government oppression as a tool to bring about spiritual revival and pray, not to be safe, but for God to use it to point people to Himself?

All those toys don’t make me safe. The right Commander in chief or Commandant of the Marine Corps doesn’t make me safe. God does. He wants my eyes on Him. He wants me to see so beyond my few years on this earth to eternity and know that…..

“My thoughts are completely different from yours. My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways and my thoughts are higher than yours.”
Isa 55:8-9 NLT