I’ve been irritated when I’ve heard of politicians saying, ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’ – meaning that any calamity is an opportunity for them to push through a desired policy change. However, when I stop to think about it, the Lord uses that same process with many of us. Some of my best spiritual policy changes have come in the midst of a crisis.
3 comments:
Gail;
-----One evening I rushed into the kitchen and proclaimed to my wife and daughter, “I figured it out! God is a fascist!” Well, I expected some conflicted chuckles and a request for the reasoning behind such a ghastly statement. I was quite embarrassed after receiving neither. But an uncomfortable parallel between the two explains why some of our best spiritual policy changes occur in the midst of crisis.
-----First, let’s dispel the idea that God is a fascist. Fascism is a human system of government more corrupt than that of a free republic. It can reach the pinnacle of corruption because it views man as being able to achieve near perfection. It does reach the pinnacle because those who run its systems think they have reached near perfection. Yet there is only one perfect man who can control a governmental system without being an arrogant hypocrite. The perfect government will be on His shoulders for the benefit of His people. Fascism controls its citizens for its own benefit.
-----Yet fascism and God both require their citizens to hold prescribed beliefs, accept authorized facts, and behave according to certain attitudes. The difficulty each have in exuding these required mental and emotional states from its individual citizens is that every citizen has within themselves the ability and opportunity to think rationally according to any set of mental processes they choose. Therefore, within themselves and amongst them all is a high degree of debate and deliberation that settles out into a rather democratic consensus. This consensus will usually not be what the fascist movement needs because it is formed around the people‘s perceptions of their needs and benefits. Nor will it be what Christ needs because the people’s perceptions are distorted by human failure. Regardless, fascism always must have complete resignation of its citizens, and although Christ is merciful towards our lack of complete resignation to God, He often needs more than what our rational processes of debate and deliberation are likely to produce.
-----So, let me quote from Jonah Goldberg’s book, Liberal Fascism, “Crisis is routinely identified as a core mechanism of fascism because it short-circuits debate and democratic deliberation. Hence all fascistic movements commit considerable energy to prolonging a heightened state of emergency.” (pg. 43). Crisis commonly evokes panic, and panic replaces thought. That is the mental state fascists need in their citizenry almost constantly. God sometimes needs us there, too, but only momentarily since His intention is to provide benefit to His citizens rather than to leach it from them. Yet occasionally, we will not turn a detrimental frame of mind loose to grasp a more appropriate one which He really needs us to be holding. A bit of crisis can make the mind jump to a more beneficial track, even though it parallels the fascistic technique.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
...and if we would just do as the Lord commands and trust in His words then we wouldn't have some of the trials we do endure. But when we endure these trials to the end and thank Him, blessings come in unmeasurable amounts
Lisa;
-----Life is so systemic. The things which happen to us cause reflection from within us that effect more of the things happening to us. Often, we wind up living on bad merry-go-rounds. But we are kind of built into life in this way, as He created it. And not so the merry-go-rounds will be bad, that is our fault. But just so they will be. When we do as He commands and trust in His words (which is basically what accepting Jesus is), then our practice of His commands and knowledge of His Word filters our reflections for what makes for goodness in our responses to troubles. Then, although life still throws troubles at us from different directions, at least the merry-go-rounds we make of them will be good.
Steve
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