Jitterbugging for Jesus

Do not put your trust in princes [or princesses],

in mortal men [and women] who cannot save.”
—- From Ps. 146

R.I.P. Van Clyburn: “Blessed are the peacemakers”

Today is another day of Lent in the Christian life but in the worldly life of politics in Washington D.C. it’s just another Groundhog Day hosted by the usual suspects. A few thoughts:

I made a notation in my journal back on Wednesday, July 27–in 2011–which reads:

“The nation is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.”

What would we do without public servants?

They love us and serve us from the cradle to the grave.

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This just in from News Central! We’ve been bankrupt for whole decades.

And who’s to blame?

Obama and Boehner. Reid and McConnell. Clinton(s) and Bush(es).

The entire “conservative” Republican Party and the whole of the “liberal” Democratic Party.

But most of all, you.

And me.

Like our Princes we point fingers of blame, but point your finger and look where you thumb is aiming.

We love to love some politicians and love to loathe and hate others and have an amazing capacity to forgive the lies and disappointments and sins of the ones we love.

Our divine-like mercy for our guy or gal in politics is like God’s mercy on us all–endless.

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Why are we forever putting our trust in elected “Princes” (and a few “Princesses” who are allow to speak sometimes) who do constant violence to our minds, bodies, souls and spirits with fearmongering of the sort that both sides and all sides have “governed” with for a long time now.

And anyway, haven’t they always. “Nothing new under the sun,” a wise man said a few thousands years before Democrats and Republicans were (God help us!) created (by men, not God).

Surely we can all agree that politics is a necessary evil and politicians are too. But the operative word there is “evil.” Grace, mercy, forgiveness and truth that can be sworn on a bible–these are not exactly political values.

And we Christians vote for them, loving our guy and hating the other.

Although, some of us don’t vote anymore.

I mentioned last year that I, for one, was done voting, having finally arrived at the point where one of my faith heroes, Dorothy Day stood.

“I don’t vote,” she said. “Why encourage them?”

Which didn’t stop her from giving them holy hell in her protests and a passionate fight for world peace and justice for all with justice for the poor being a bit of a Dorothy Day priority.

A good practice for spiritual growth in this time of Lent is to simply refuse to allow the “Princes” to do any more violence to the mind, body, spirit and soul.

— Don’t let them have your mind and fill it with endless worry and anxiety over things largely over your control anyway.

— Don’t let them have you spirit and soul–don’t surrender the God in you over to professional liars and “spinners.”

— Don’t let them keep your body tied up in knots of hand-wringing angst.

— And try to remain mindful that just like you and me, every politician alive is just another broken piece of work in need of God’s healing power and endless love, grace and tender mercies.

— Breathe in life in every breath that God gives you, mindful that every breath is a gift and that the gift that is God Himself/Herself is always as near as the next breath.

— Simply maintain your only real trust in the Prince of Peace, Truth, Justice and Mercy.

— Pray.

1 Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.

2 I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.

4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,

6 the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.

7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,

8 the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.

9 The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

10 The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the LORD.