Hope, Fear and Something Else

This is long and maybe it rambles a bit, so read what you can and let me know your thoughts.

After an amazing birthday celebration with my niece Jordan and my wonderful family,
I vowed that I would stay away from any more political postings. So with five days left in this election cycle, this is it, je suis fini.

As a person of faith, my sincerest belief is that hope overcomes fear.
When I compare the two campaigns, I see a definite difference, there is no place for fear.

According to 1 John 4:18–21, the God I worship encourages us to live without fear.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love.

I struggle daily with this idea of loving my neighbor, but my faith teaches me that:

We love, because he first loved us.

If I claim faith then I am challenged because:

If any one says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

And further:

… this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.

And this is why I believe that Senator Obama exemplifies leadership for the future of America and is the best choice to be our next President. I believe that in general and overall, he has run a campaign based on the issues and not in tearing down his opponent.

And yet, while I was discussing this with Stephen, I found the cynicism creeping in. I kept thinking that we as a country deserve the leaders we get. Just look at the last 8 years.

So while I believe that hope can and should triumph over fear, I keep thinking that if Senator Obama wins this election and we as a country cannot truly get behind his vision for us as a nation, then the blame and ridicule and anger and distrust and the thinking that 2012 will somehow be better, will enter, full force, into the American psyche.

You know, the fact that there is still a percentage in this country who think Senator Obama is Muslim, Arab and a terrorist. The fact that white skinheads plan on killing him. The fact that he is referred to as a "risky" candidate and that he has anti-America sentiments. And of course there's the reality that some won't vote for him just because he is black. This stuff is nuts. Sometimes I just wish he would just go home and love his wife and his girls and stay safe and away from all of this nonsense that we call American politics.

So with that I confess I won’t be too disappointed if Senator McCain wins the election. If he does, we can continue on as we have. As I noted, we deserve the leaders we get. Then the blame for our failure as a nation and our failure as a positive presence on the world’s stage can fall where it has always fallen.

Senator Obama, thank you for the good fight and the idea that you could bring us together as a nation and as a people. Thank you for the reminder that the rights of every one of us; left, right, center, gay, straight, red, blue, rich or poor. That each of us with all of our flaws and with all of our hopes and dreams, could be respected. All of this is kind of like the way I believe that God looks at us each of us, at the end of each and every day, with love and mercy.

Matt.12: 1-8
At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath."
He said to them, "Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law how on the sabbath the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, `I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is lord of the sabbath."

So while I was thinking of the things I wanted to write and feeling a bit anxious. I found some peace in listening to Aaron Neville's beautiful version of Amazing Grace

No matter how this election turns out it also helps me to remember, as our Canon Pastor, Mary Haddad reminds us "where ever you are, God is, and all will be well."