Question Number Ten

My fridge is on the fritz. While praying I asked God for a fix, telling Him He is in charge of hot and cold, including the weather inside my refrigerator. "Have you tried turning it on and off again" rings in my ears as a refrain from a tv series: the suggestion being there may be an easy fix, and technical assistance always starts with a basic query. In other words what have you done to solve the problem, as of yet? Let us start with a reset...

Wintery weather indoors

Last year my furnace in the middle of winter, clunked to a dead stop. It was frigidly cold outside, my family was already sick, and all we could do was wait for a repair man to arrive, assess the situation, and replace parts. We were subject to wintery weather indoors, and someone else resolving the problem. My fridge is currently warm, my house was freezing cold last year, and I am not a technician.

Flooding

This leads me to the problem that I have been considering. We humans are not experts in all things and are reliant on one another in weird and wonderful ways. When it rained torrentially years ago and sewers backed water up and into basements throughout the city I live in, it didn't take long to figure out that there was an infrastructure issue that required engineering attention. All across the city repairs were taking place, including on my street. The city did not want to get sued by residents, and workers quietly went about doing the work to resolve the matter of flooding that damaged many a household. Fast forward to our now, when rain pours from the sky, I usually take a quick peak into my fully furnished basement to check for dryness. When the basement was repaired and rebuilt, twice, once due to a plumbers error, and the second time from sewer backup - we were fortunate and only had rain water coming in while some of our neighbours had a nastier experience - as a family, we felt the relief of knowing that professionals capable of dealing with the required repair and replacement of floors, drywall, ceilings, and whatever else needed to be done, were available and willing. 

I get a little panicky

All this said I know that you too have lived to tell tales of hot, cold, wet and dry, when you were subjected to the elements and needed help to put things aright. I confess, I get a little panicky when something goes awry and I don't have the skills to resolve whatever it is that needs fixing. The questions, like unwelcome rain water seeping into the basement of my psyche, pour in:

1 How bad is it

2 Can I fix it

3 Can the internet tell me what to do

4 Where's that product manual

5 Is there someone I know that can give advice or take a look

6 How much is this going to cost

7 Will repair work, or do we have to buy a new one

8 Is the sky falling and will this ever be resolved

9 EECK... how bad is it

10 Who can I turn to and trust

When real help comes

It is number 10, dear reader, number 10 is the problem I mentioned above that I have been considering. Who do we turn to and trust to fix what has gone all wrong? I don't know about you, but I have had most excellent service and quite the opposite too. To be fair, I am confident that I have provided most excellent service, and quite the opposite too. We have all been at times, at the top of our game and alternatively, made judgment errors, been sloppy or absent of mind, and made mistakes that cost someone else some cash, trouble, time, etc. When real help does come, problems are solved, this that and the other are fixed, a sense of relief and appreciation settle into our beings. It is wonderful when a furnace does its job to stop shivering, a fridge keeps food edible, and sewers do whatever they do to ensure homes remain liveable. All this in a land of abundance...

We don't realize

Last year when it was freezing inside of my house and I was super sick, all I could think of was how cold it was, and how some humans live outside, homeless. Good Lord, to not count my blessings is an utter sin. We don't realize how fortunate we have been until we no longer have what we took for granted...

Think with me now: We don't realize how fortunate we have been until we no longer have what we took for granted... 

How we took our freedom for granted, dear one: I recoil in the recalling. Disrepair is what we face, and question number ten is on the minds of all that want professionals to come in to fix what is broken. Dishonest men and woman feign an expertise they do not possess as they preen, posture and pose for the moving pictures that project persona: these humans are devoid of substance, pretending to be modern day saviours with ready solutions to solve our modern day problems. The fakery, the fraud, gives us that panicky feeling, doesn't it? 

A new government?

What I know is people are searching for the right person or people to trust, not realizing that there isn't a soul out there capable of returning us to factory setting. A new furnace, a new fridge, a new sewer system... a new government? We have never had a new government, ever! We have had one bad public servant - I use this term loosely, since the people that have stolen power serve not the public, but themselves at the expense of the populace - swapped out for one of their relatives, over and over again. I ask you, how is it that fathers and sons, as though they are royalty, have managed to run countries... did they inherit the role, or were they "voted in" via nepotism?

Your provision and mine

I will suggest to you now that all is a facade, a money grab, a pretend repair job, a con that humans have permitted because not long ago, nothing was broken enough to cause us inconvenience, hot or coldness, hunger or dampening of our creature comforts. We didn't realize how fortunate we had been until we no longer had what we took for granted. The lie is believing that the abusers that have long taken office, somehow afforded us with their benevolent governance, the lives we have enjoyed. Not so, I tell you. It is God Almighty that has been your provision and mine. It is God Almighty that warms a heart, soothes a sore throat, cools a temperature, brings out the sun to evaporate excessive moisture so we can stay dry. Turning to and trusting strangers that have blatantly displayed how deceitful they are is exactly how we have gotten into this ungodly mess. And now, we pay the exorbitant price of wondering about our freedom to choose, our freedom to products, places, things, each other. 

Freedom Fighter

Freedom is not held in the hands of oppressors, nor is it granted by those that profess an ability to return it when stolen. Freedom comes from knowing that I do not belong to me, that I was bought and paid for by the blood of the only Freedom Fighter that ever graced us with His presence, Jesus Christ. 

Jesus is the Redeemer, and whether you know it yet or not, He is the only One we can with confidence, turn to with complete trust to save us from the tyranny of deadly lies that threaten to devour us alive. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life, and if a great reset is ever to occur, it will be with His Holy Hands doing the repair work that we need so desperately. Our job is to pray His will on earth as it is in heaven, and to model Christ for others in our own work, families, friendship circles and communities. 

Trust not in man, turn to the Lord Jesus Christ

Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday (Psalm 37:4-6)

PS: I do know not all politicians are wicked... 

God has placed His people everywhere, and that includes in positions of political power. When a man or woman professes Jesus Christ as Saviour, lives a Biblical life honouring God and people, and takes responsibility publicly for all of their decisions, including the ones that have caused unintentional harm, I consider them voteable... 

I did not vote in the last local election, because not one of the candidates were devoted to Christ. Devotion to Christ is my standard of assessing someone vying for a position of governance, and darn it all, dear reader, this type of man, or woman, is in short supply.