Opus 2024-091: Rudderless

We are currently in a leadership crisis.  The ship of state seems to be meandering around and having no useful goal.  Our leaders ship billions of dollars to Iran and then say, “Don’t”.  We have a supreme court nominee who claims she does not know what a woman is.  That was bad enough but she was still confirmed.  

We have an absentee father crisis.  Young men have never had the influence of a father and end up burning, looting and brutalizing.  

Why is leadership so important?  People in that position have the authority to make decisions that the rest of us are locked into and forced to live with.  When Jesus came it’s very possible that God was giving Israel one more chance to embrace the God of their fathers.  How that coordinates with the idea that God knew from the foundation of the world that the cross would be necessary, I don’t know.  We are locked in time and have no comprehension of what it means to be outside time.  God knows and operates both in and out.  I don’t have a way of explaining that but, Israel had one more chance, and they blew it.  The thing is, it was not the people of Israel so much as the leaders of Israel.

The gospels continually refer to the Jews.  They talk about the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes and the elders.  Most of the people in these categories rejected Jesus as the Messiah.  The common people flocked to him to listen to what he had to say.  Granted, many of them just came for the free bread, but if there was anyone who is willing to respond to Jesus, it was the common people.  Their opinion was never considered.

We see this in the early church.  The common people responded to the teachings of the disciples.  Although there were exceptions, the early church was made up of slaves, workers and women.  The heresies and controversies were the product of the educated leaders more than the majority.  We see it today as liberal leaders take their denominations and congregations down the road of wokeness and turn their back on Jesus.

It is vital that we get concerned about the leadership.  We have disasters happening both politically and spiritually.  We will be judged by the leaders that we pick and support.  It may not be individual.  You may be a faithful believer in a sea of apostates.  You will go to heaven but the church and country will burn.  You may be a patriotic American but if you have a communist judge, hello jail time.

And don’t hide behind the “Jesus is my leader” mantra.  We know Jesus is our leader.  And one of the things he’s leading us to do is to pick godly leaders.  It might even mean that you will need to accept the burden yourself.

We are having run-offs in the primary round.  On the ballot are appraisal district candidates.  We also have school boards and a passel of other places where leadership is needed.  At the very least, pray.  Start there.  Then move on to vote and look for chances to speak up.  If the country crumbles you will at least know that you did what you could.

homo unius libri