Sunday message- wearing a smile in political times

A brief little bit based on two slightly out of context verses from one woman's prayer.

The context is I Samuel and the story of Samuel's birth.  Well, one context is.  The other context is the daily (it seems) battle on the fields of politics.  I have been more outspoken this year, and will continue to be.  I think it is a shame that we can't try to make the best of things seemingly.  Not saying who is protesting, sabotaging, what have you, but at a certain point it is time to play the cards you've been dealt.  And I will continue to expose lies, low-information pseudo-facts, and am ready and willing to take the new administration to task when needed.  That is neither here nor there.


However, the attitude with which I prosecute this is under surveillance.  I need to weigh my words, understanding that this blog is a place to vent, but that I also have a responsibility to He who saved me.  And on that subject, two lines from my Bible in that prayer I mentioned stood out.  Now I have yet to find an online translation that matches mine, which is "the New King James Version New Open Bible".  You might have this verse different, but the poetry and meaning of this translation makes this extra special and appropriate:

1 And Hannah prayed and said,   
           My heart rejoices in the LORD, 
           My horn is exalted in the LORD,
           I smile at my enemies,
           Because of Your salvation.


Get it?  This is the "Big Picture" attitude I've been talking about for a long time now.  It doesn't matter how wrong or right, how evil or good, how polite or insulting, the other guy is-  I need to have the smiling attitude.  Because it doesn't matter if he wins (or thinks he does) the debate (or what passes for it), he CAN'T TAKE MY SALVATION.  Even if the fool (or not) gets the world his way, it doesn't matter because of what is awaiting me in the next!  And as I argue the point (or choose to scroll on by), I need to kick that attitude into focus.


But there is another part of it just a bit further on- a part that Hannah was directing at her enemies, but being my own worst enemy, I can direct at myself:


            3 Talk no more so very proudly;
            Let no arrogance come from your mouth,
            For the LORD is the God of Knowledge,
            And by Him actions are weighed.


It's not just what you say, but the attitude with which it is said.  I bailed on the "conversation" I alluded to Wednesday when it became apparent that Mr. Leon was not about to listen, read what I was saying and intelligently respond to it, or make any response that was worth the time of a thinking human being.  At this point in the past, I would have unleashed the creativity of my wrath- instead, I unsubscribed from the feed and moved on with life.  Not because I had "won" anything, but because he had established himself as the proverbial swine to not throw your pearls before, and I was really, really ready to jump in after him.  I'm sure he jumped in with yet more of the same judgments of me that had marked the whole thread to that point.  Good on him.  But there is only one judgment of me that counts, and that judgment doesn't come from some blog writer.

And thankfully, it isn't MY judgment either, as I fall short each step of the way.