As I’ve been reminded, the tone of this blog has shifted considerably of late. It’s been a reflection of my mood and where my attention has been drawn, and that’s not a good thing.

I’d become stuck in the tawdry details of our world, politics, social trends, movies, television, everything there is to complain about. As the saying goes, it’s hard to soar with the eagles when you’re stuck in the dirt with the turkeys.

Last March, I got a big wake up call when my doctor discovered that my blood sugar was the thing that was soaring. These days, the epidemic of diabetes is almost always linked to lifestyle choices. My choices hadn’t been good.

I made the decision to cut out all the junk food, start consuming a lot more fruits and veggies, and to exercise. So far, exercise has consisted mainly of walking, which works pretty well. In the past four months, I’ve lost 22 pounds and my latest lab work says my blood chemistry is great. I’ve had to take on board a few medications, but once I get to a more reasonable weight (I’m hoping by December), I can try getting off of them.

I also started reading the Bible every morning again.

Actually, I started that before all of this and went through my first 220 day cycle (it’s actually a program where you read the entire Bible in 222 days, but I skipped slightly ahead). I’m now three months into the second cycle and I think something’s finally kicking in.

Sunday before last, there was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump which resulted in one death (not including the shooter) and two serious injuries. Then last Sunday, Joe Biden abruptly announced he would not be seeking a second term as President of the United States. That’s a lot to happen in the span of a week. In a created universe, there’s no such thing as a coincidence.

With the current Vice President now poised to become the next “leader of the free world,” I became rather despondent. Then again, I have long tended toward being melancholy (I’m reading portions of I Samuel just now and I can identify with King Saul’s “spirit of melancholy”).

If I keep my nose to the ground, that’s all I’ll ever see. It’s easy to forget that the Bible says the world is supposed to get a lot worse before it gets better. I guess that’s where faith comes in. The world as it is or as it’s becoming isn’t the world to come. It isn’t God’s vision of who we are as human beings or our ideal environment.

The Gospel’s are replete with messages about being ready, not getting lazy or complacent, and not losing hope and faith.

“Be prepared, and keep your lamps lit. You are also to be like people who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door for him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will prepare himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and he will come up and serve them. Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

“But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. You too, be ready; because the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not think He will.” -Luke 12:39-40 (NASB)

So many people, and you see them especially in social media, are pinning their hopes and faith on a political leader, someone who they think will save the world and save them.

“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and who rely on horses; they trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, and they did not depend on the Holy One of Israel and did not seek out Hashem.” -Isaiah 31:1 Stone Edition Tanakh

“I raise my eyes upon the mountains; whence will come my help? My help is from Hashem, Maker of heaven and earth.” -Psalm 121:1

I’m not a fan of using text written specifically for Israel and applying it to the rest of us, but I’m banking that it fits all of those who’s hope is in the Almighty.

The world doesn’t hope in the Lord, but we who call ourselves “believers” must. In my case, that’s a lesson that’s far too easy to forget, in spite of how many years I’ve been maintaining this blog and crafting “my morning meditations.”

The world, politics, social causes, all these things that sound well meaning but depend only on the will of mortal and limited human beings are designed to bring us down to that level. However, everything we’ve read in the Word of God says otherwise. We are to trust in and give service only to Him.

And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory, for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I want. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” Jesus replied to him, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” -Luke 4:6-8 (NASB)

You and I don’t have to let ourselves be flushed down the toilet or swirl down the bathtub drain by what seems to be the inexorable whirlpools of what this temporal and temporary world thinks is important.

It’s not that some part of what these people have to say about being kind to others and fighting injustice isn’t true. However, while they bend those principals for their own gain or to satisfy their own biases, we are to live out those values in the Name of the Almighty and for the sake of Heaven.

That’s not saying our view is so lofty that we don’t see what’s going on around us. It means for us to use those higher principals and the motivations provided by the Divine in our daily lives. They serve not only to remind us of who God is and who we are in Him, but to show the world by our actions that we are leading lives that have been transformed only by the Holy Spirit.

Keeping grounded in the Word, at least for me, is a challenge I face everyday, and it’s been pointed out to me that I often fail in that challenge. I’m not sure how my weakness reveals His strength, but I hope it does.

“And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in difficulties, in behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” -2 Corinthians 12:9-10

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer person is decaying, yet our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” -2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Keep looking up and trusting, not in human beings, but in our Creator who made the vastness of eternity and who made us, too.