Real Change: Our Time or God’s?

Recently, I was indirectly chastised on Facebook by an Obama-supporting friend who doesn’t appreciate the fact that I am more than willing to post various informative links about the nefarious activities of the current administration and our Congressional leaders.  Her argument was that people shouldn’t try to change things they have no power to change, that we should only try to change what happens in our own little sphere and leave the rest in God’s hands because all things happen on His time.  This statement is partly true – obviously, if you are a God-fearing person, you must believe that all things happen on God’s time; however, to say that we must not try to change the things we see going wrong, that we must just pray and put those things into God’s hands. If that were the case, what would happen?

Throughout history, there is evidence of God putting someone into the right place at the right time to affect the things happening around them.  In the Bible, the Book of Esther demonstrates exactly how God uses people to affect change.  It is the only book of the Bible in which God is NEVER directly mentioned.  When the threat against the Jews comes to light, Esther’s Uncle Mordecai says to her, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.  And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)  If Esther had not persevered and acted upon the position God had put her in, the total annihilation of the Jews could have occurred, which would have eliminated the chance that Jesus Christ would have been born centuries later.

The Founding Fathers of our country are also examples of people being put into the right place at the right time – when else in history are such extraordinary men brought together to start a new country?  To read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution is to know that those documents were divinely inspired.  To have a country based upon the premise of freedom for all was something that had never been tried in the history of mankind – not in the way that our Founders designed it.  Benjamin Franklin summed it up best as he talked with his colleagues at the Constitutional Convention:

“All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth-that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?”

Sarah Palin has been criticized because she said that she had peace with McCain choosing her as his running-mate because it was “part of God’s plan”, but how can we know that what she says is not true?  She has been one of the most influential people to come on the scene since Ronald Reagan in the ’70′s.  What role she will play in the next decade of American politics and policies is yet to be determined.  It is impossible to see her rise to the success she has and not believe that somehow there was Divine Providence that has helped put her where she is.  Her book paints a portrait of a strong, spiritual woman who prays about everything and works to do what she feels God telling her to do.  The irony is that the people criticizing Palin for her faith in God are the very same people who would say that Obama’s presidency was divinely inspired – so for those people, do events only occur on God’s time when they happen to agree or like those events?

Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown

The success of Scott Brown in Massachusetts is a testament to the fact that we can affect change in our country.   A month prior to the election, very few people were talking about Scott Brown.  On Twitter, a few tweets here and there flitted through about him.  Two weeks before the election, there were more tweets and by the week prior to the election, at least 1/3rd of all the tweets I received were about the MA election.  Scott Brown was able to raise over 1.2 million dollars in 24 hours because of the grass-roots efforts by thousands of people all over the country, sending alerts to friends, family and other contacts to get them to support Scott Brown.  This was an incredible event.  Was it divinely inspired?  Was it on God’s time?  One would have to say, “yes.”  Just as Americans were feeling defeated with regard to the Health Care bill and feeling unheard by their leaders in Congress, Scott Brown comes out of nowhere and gives Americans hope again.   Just when we feel that God is nowhere to be found, prayers are answered to let us know that He is still in control.  If we accept that Brown’s success happened on God’s time, so must we accept that the presidency of Obama and the emergence of the Democrat-power in Congress was also God’s plan.  We cannot know why or what direction we might take next, but I have faith that maybe the reason God has put us in the place in which we find ourselves and our country, is to make those of us who have fallen asleep to wake up and realize that we cannot allow our leaders to govern on cruise control.   That maybe, through Obama, Pelosi and Reid and their power-grabbing ways, we will find our Reagan – that it takes the threat of losing our freedoms to remember how precious it is.

The Massachusetts election should make us all optimistic about the mid-term elections.  The Democratic Congressional leaders are now backpedaling and trying to make sense of something they never thought would happen.  They are re-grouping and strategizing.  Our President has complained that he is only trying to take care of us and that he won’t back down from his plans – for us; with that knowledge, we must continue to do whatever we can to affect change, to inform our friends, families and acquaintances about all that the Administration and Congressional leaders are trying to do to our freedoms and futures.  These events affect us all.  We must be optimistic about the election of Scott Brown, but we must not become complacent.   We must continue to pray for our country, pray for our president and pray for wisdom in everything that we do.  And when our time to affect change occurs, we must be ready to jump on the opportunity and do all we can do to make that change happen, but the only way to succeed is if we all choose to voice our opinions loudly and often – who will you influence today?

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