The Pendulum

"Black Lives Matter" has bought about a backlash. Stories circulate from the Internet-that wellspring of truth-about a veteran beaten up by a gang of black youths who taunted him with, "Do you believe black lives matter?" (Personally, I'd have offered them all a Dr Pepper and invited them to sit down with me and tell me about it.) Who wants a return of the race riots of the 60s or worse yet, the Tulsa Race Riot in the 1920s, the deadliest riot in history?
The pendulum swung far to the left during the era of "Politically Correct" speech and "Inclusive Language." We couldn't say or write "he" or "him" in speaking broadly of people, but had to use a vague "they" and "them." Poetry loses its cadence and beauty when we replace "Who can dwell on your holy hill. . .He whose walk is blameless," with "Those who walk blamelessly" (as in the New Revised Standard Version.)
Now, after some decades of "PC" talk, we have a political candidate who makes fun of disabled people, casts misogynistic slurs and openly expresses disdain for Mexicans. His popularity swells because many are simply fed up with this reverse racism and contrived political correctness. Welcome again to the abuse of civility as the pendulum swings far to the right.
My friend and former co-worker Steve taught this wisdom to the kids he served at a children's home: "You don't have to verbalize every thought that comes into your head." The Psalmist says "Set a guard O Lord over my mouth: keep watch over the door my lips." --Psalm141:3.
The PC movement's point became lost through slavish over-use. The world and society keep bouncing between extremes, never staying for long in the truth.
The truth is love. All lives matter. God said so,  Jesus said that the Father notices every sparrow that falls, and declared that you are of greater worth than many sparrows.
Peter proclaimed from Old Testament scripture: "Those who would desire life and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit."
We Christians need to climb down from the pendulum swing and teach others, especially politicians, how to talk.

Happiness: Not Just For High Achievers

In election years, both sides make promises. They usually have to do with peace, prosperity and happiness. One side promises something for everyone, another promises law and order and justice for the wicked. I guess you’d call that pandering. 

Jesus didn’t pander. He promised blessings and divine approval on the poor and powerless in the Sermon on the Mount. He said the mournful would be comforted—obviously meaning those who mourn the effects of sin and suffering in people’s lives. He blessed the peacemaker, not the protestor or the sword-wielding conqueror on the white horse. (The only blessed sword-wielding conqueror on a white horse will be Jesus, in Revelation 19.)

Jesus pronounces happiness to the disadvantaged, to His disciples unjustly suffering in a brutal, secular world. He blessed the worshiper who approaches God with a sincere, pure heart.

It sounds paradoxical and absurd, but the truth is, one can in this way be happy and truly blessed, even when one is poor and powerless. When life is adverse and your plans don’t work out, you can rejoice, because God’s people who rely on Him have power and peace that the world cannot grasp.

I love those Country song lyrics that proclaim that “Happiness ain’t just for high achievers.” I had a friend who, struggling for breath and wracked with pain, laughed at the absurdity of life and smiled when his family and loved ones came near. Bob Harrison didn’t get what he wanted in life—in the end, Christ gave him much more.

God is great. When Mary contemplated her place in God’s plan of salvation, she exclaimed “He has filled the poor with good things, but has sent the rich empty away.” Luke 1:53. Take heart! The saying is true: happiness isn’t just for high achievers. Put your trust in God.