The Day After

The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. (Proverbs 10:11-12 ESV). The political pundits will be reporting all the elections today and the next few days. We will be told from every perspective either why we are now better or worse because of the outcome of the election. I thought it might be interesting to reach into the early Twentieth Century for some tidbits of philosophy from Will Rogers. He was many things, cowboy, part Cherokee Indian, entertainer and tart observer of the American scene. From December 1922 until his death in August 1935, he wrote a column about anything that caught his interest. Many of his quips were about the current affairs of government or politics. Here are a few:  I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons.  Congress is so strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing, nobody listens and then everybody disagrees.  Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do nothing, they don't hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous.  There should be a moratorium called on candidates' speeches. From now on, they are just talking themselves out of votes.  A President-elect's popularity is the shortest lived of any public man's. It only lasts till he picks his Cabinet.  The promising season ends on Election Day. That same night, the alibi season begins and lasts for the next four years.  When it comes to a showdown, Washington must never forget who rules, the people. Whether there is truth in these things he said or not, there certainly is truth and wisdom in the words of Solomon. The election is over. Let’s all decide that it is time to “cover our offenses with love.” The hatred must stop if we are ever to see our nation be a positive influence in the world. We all have a very important job to do. It has always been our task. I wonder if we had spent as much time doing it over the past few decades as we have spent vilifying the people who have different opinions that we do if we would be where we are today. Oh, that task, you ask? It is praying for those in authority over us! We seem to delight in shouting from the rooftops what is wrong with our circumstances and those who we have determined are responsible for them. Well, perhaps it is now time to trust the Lord with those men and women. Of course, we have the liberty and responsibility to speak our opinions, but remember than the truth is not found in our opinions. It is found solely in the Word of God. Pray for your elected officials.