Regrettably Lacking in Regret

As I watched the first presidential debate between Senators McCain and Obama I sat up awaiting the candidates response to one question posed by moderator Jim Lehrer possibly more than any of the others. “Much has been said about the lessons of Vietnam, what do you see as the lessons of Iraq?”

John McCain’s response centered on the importance for solid strategy that is necessary to win, and to bring troops home with victory and with honor. Obama began his answer stated that over this issue he and McCain have a fundamental difference. He stated that he opposed the war in Iraq six years ago, and why. What neither candidate even hinted at is what troubles me as I look ahead to one of these two men taking the role of commander-in-chief.

As a Christian whose worldview includes a God who created the world, and loves the people of all nations of the world so much that he gave his only son to die to save them, I have wrestled with the war in Iraq. I don’t take lightly the over 4,000 men and women who have given their lives in Iraq to serve in this nation’s armed forces. But neither can I pass over the deaths of Iraqi civilians during the past 6 years, and am stunned as estimates range in the hundreds of thousands. “…what do you see as the lessons of Iraq?”

Can we please debate the titanic shift in foreign policy that moved from a policy of just war, to one accepting and marketing preemptive war? How I would have LOVED to hear either candidate take the opportunity afforded by such a question to at least allude to the idea that maybe, just maybe, there is a moral lesson to have learned from this engagement that might compel him to take our nation on a different path if we can manage to get out of Iraq, as McCain spoke: “with honor.” And if we can so leave Iraq, will this next president feel any moral burden from the hundreds of thousands of lives lost and injured in this current war? Is there any regret, any remorse for either candidate, or are the only lessons learned strategic in nature?

I guess there remains a part of me that deeply wants to sense in the next president of my beloved nation a moral greatness that would take such a question and respond with a depth of wisdom and concern that makes me want to get off my seat and applaud thinking “there’s someone who get’s it!”  Instead I sighed in disappointment and sat back in my seat again unimpressed.

Cursing the Sun and other Lessons in Futility

Earlier today I was driving my 2 year old son home from a day with his “Nana.”  At the start of our journey home my already-unhappy-to-be-stuck-with-dad-and-leaving-Nana toddler realized he was seated at just the wrong angle inside our little Malibu.  He sat directly facing an intense late afternoon sun as we initially drove west out of the neighborhood.  The humorous take-away happened when he angrily rebuked the malicious orb yelling “No sun, no!”  I first thought, we’ve got a 45 minute drive and he’s going to start throwing a fit one minute into it.  But after the 3rd “No sun, no!” I moved from mounting frustration to slight amusement (I’m sick, I know), and then I realized there’s a lesson to learn here.

No, it isn’t that cutesy kidde sunglasses are a good investment, or that front windshield tinting would be nice. I’m thinking a little deeper; that in many ways I am still like my 2-year old, sun-cursing toddler.  I have found myself repeating behaviors that I know are equally futile to ordering the sun around.  Maybe you don’t try to order parts of the galaxy around, but do you find yourself ramming your head into a brick wall in other ways?

“I am determined to be wise”—

but this was beyond me.

Whatever wisdom may be,

it is far off and most profound—

who can discover it?

Ecclesiastes 7

Pastor Rick Warren Hosts McCain and Obama

John McCain and Barack Obama discuss faith and politics in a forum hosted by Pastor Rick Warren (center) Saturday night (Mario Anzouni/Reuters)

Saturday night Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church and author of The Purpose Driven Life successfully moderated the first public event between the two candidates for president.

Warren’s premise for hosting the debate is that while he believes in separation between church and state, he does not believe in a separation between faith and politics. After all, he asserts, “faith is just a world view, and everybody has some kind of world view.”

I felt that Warren performed very well in his role as moderator, and appreciated the forum to hear the candidates discuss matters that matter to me.

I encourage you to check out CNN’s full discussion available online.

Walking in Wide Spaces

I stumbled over this beautiful, yet counter-cultural truth in Psalms 119 this morning:

Do not snatch the word of truth from my mouth,

for I have put my hope in your laws.

I will always obey your law,

for ever and ever.

I will walk about in freedom,

for I have sought out your precepts.

I noticed the word used for “freedom” is a phrase in the Hebrew– it literally reads something like “I will walk in a wide place”. This statement captured my heart and my attention as I thought about it. The writer is declaring that he has hoped in God’s laws, he has striven to obey God and will continue to do so for ever. And the result of having sought out God’s precepts and striven for obedience? Freedom. And I wonder, freedom from what? Perhaps there’s a freedom from the pressures of sin. Pride brings pressure as we struggle to maintain an image that over-represents us. Financial pressures narrow our existence as we’ve had eyes bigger than our pocketbooks. Relational pressures weigh us down when we do life our way instead of God’s.

In God, under his laws, his precepts, his direction is found a wide place to roam.

Freedom.

A God Who’s All About Me

I’ve begun reading God in Search of Man by Abraham Joshua Heschel. I’m only 33 pages in so I will be no means comment on the book in general, but I wanted to share one concept from the opening pages that caused some real reflection for me.

In the context of self-clarification and self-examination, Heshel writes:

Religious thinking, believing, feeling are among the most deceptive activities of the human spirit. We often assume it is God we believe in, but in reality it may be a symbol of personal interests that we dwell upon. We may assume that we feel drawn to God, but in reality it may be a power within the world that is the object of our adoration. We may assume it is God we care for, but it may be our own ego we are concerned with. To examine our religious existence is, therefore, a task to be performed constantly. [Italics mine]

“We may assume it is God we care for, but it may be our own ego…” These were the words that cut to my heart Morning. I live in a perpetual Disneyland compared to the reality of following Jesus for the first Christians and even many in other parts of the world today, for whom a public profession of faith in Jesus marks the end of life as they new it, and possibly even the end of life. Only in such an easy environment could following Jesus become so discombobulated that I may seek God for my benefit. I want what he can give me and what He can do for me. At least, I must admit this is often the case.