Ho Hum

I'm weary. Already. The campaign season hasn't even begun and I've had enough. Just heard that the NEA endorsed a candidate already and I'm pretty ho hum about it all.

You need to understand that I'm a political junkie from way back. After devouring Advise and Consent a gazillion times I dreamed of being a political pro. I was a Government major in college, served on the student council four times, worked on campaigns, labored for the city of Minneapolis, marched a wee bit (bit not enough), read the MInneapolis Star Tribune religiously, Time and Newsweekly zealously, and even tried law school for a week or two. I cared. A lot. For a long time I cared. For that matter I still do but in all honesty I've lost my passion for it all.

Why?

I used to understand the rules of politics and government. In it's own convoluted way it made sense. The free for all we have now scares me a bit because it's a bit too free form. There are no rules of engagement anymore. Anything goes. There's nothing to wrap my mind and hopes around anymore. I'm not sure who to trust.

I once believed that with a little give here and a little give there that politicians would find a way to make things good for their country. I'm not convinced that little give and take is possible anymore. There's nothing little anymore in the cravings for power and media attention these days. Please believe me when I tell you that I'm not naive about the political ugliness of the past. But that ugliness was held somewhat in check by a societal standard of right and wrong that permeated just about everything. Now right and wrong is held up as suspect just about anywhere one looks.

We're in a bind I think. We don't trust anymore. We expect and almost appreciate outrageous behavior. And those who hold on to right and wrong often fail to look at the log in their own eye. As a result, there is an absence of a winsome expression of the goodness of God.

Is there a way out? Nothing easy comes to mind. This is a hole we've been digging for a long time. All of us. But here's what I'm thinking. I can start to care again about those things I've been dismissive about. I can ask God for the grace to rekindle old passions and the ideals that originally ignited them. I could actually begin to pray for those politicians that tick me off and if the world needs a more winsome expression of the goodness of God perhaps I could learn how to do it and encourage it within my circles of influence. And when I feel ho hum I could resist such notions because I know that when I'm ho hum that I'm rarely in the center of God's will for my life.