Why Doesn't the President Give This State of The Union Address?

Tonight President Bush gave yet another State of the Union address. It was same-ol', same-ol'-- lots of boasting about what he's done and what he'll do to raucous applause from his toadies of one stripe or another.

A number of years ago I wrote the State of the Union address he should give, at least I thought so at the time. I just wanted to share it with you. Don't worry, it is quite short.

"Good evening. I’ll be brief. I’m sick and tired of people who always come to the government to solve all their problems. I’m also sick and tired of people who simply refuse to come to identify their own abject wretchedness and further refuse to come to terms with the fact that they cannot do squat to make themselves good enough to make this nation as a whole one that God would care to bless in any way.

So what I want you to do is this. Stop making me an idol of the fulfillment of your godless expectations. I want all of you here to go home, right now, and I want all of you at home, right now, to turn off the TV. Go open your Bibles and read them like you never have before. Humbly pray like you never have before, that God would have mercy and find favor with this nation. And if you haven’t already, for the benefit of your very soul, ask the Lord Jesus Christ to save you, to clean out your wicked hearts, and to heal you and our people. Then get out and love somebody in His truth, by His word. Do this tomorrow too for that matter. Then again the next day. Don’t stop doing it.

Thank you, and good night.”

I just don't exactly think he'd say those things. Ya think?

It wasn't until about four years ago-- after I'd actually read the Bible for what God meant and not what I wanted it to mean-- that I got why. Before that time I was a full-on Christian crusader, joining all the other righteous crusaders hell-bent on making the world into a bunch of Christian-looking do-gooders.

Then it dawned on me. While God was perfectly fine with me doing that stuff, fully immersed in the Ministry of Condemnation as I was, I later discovered that He wanted more from me. As much as it was good to be a law enforcer, He wanted me to be a truth and grace expresser.

The president can never be that. He can only be the most oppressive law enforcer he can be. He does that a number of different ways depending on his own idiosyncratic characteristics. It seems a lot of people don't like those of Bush's; his popularity ratings are presently in the toilet.

So, someone new will be there in two years. They too will be a brutal law enforcer, but they might be more successful at looking like a really nice guy. And they will also trumpet the virtues of Roman hegemony to the raucous applause from his or her toadies of one stripe or another. Oh there will certainly be those who rail against it, perceptively seeing the inate brutality of Cain's legacy, yet foolishly thinking they can change the leopard's spots.

The fact is, if people actually got the message of the State of the Union address above, and they actually did that thing, then there would be no need for a president any more. Everyone loving one another as they should. Wow. Why have any guy (or gal) in government at all? I've been reading the first book of Samuel in my devotional time, and I happen to be at chapter eight, you know the one, where the people insist on having a king and Samuel tells them all the wonderful neato things that will happen when they get one. It's pretty wretched, but, yeah, the Catholicist group Israel was at the time, it didn't matter.

Actually, tonight, I thought about this. What do you think if the president, during that time he points out pre-selected people in the gallery to showcase them and the spectacularly charitable thing they did, introduced us to this person?...

"And there is ___ ___, the individual who told us about Jesus Christ. That was the greatest thing anyone could have ever done. Because now that we all know our savior, the One who's completely freed us from our sin, there is no more war, violence, or dissension. No one goes hungry anywhere, and everyone has more than they need. What a joy it is now to praise God from Whom it all comes. And what a pleasure it is to now make this announcement: this institution, the federal government, is now officially disbanded."

Could that ever happen? It's a nice dream, but I think what'll happen is more in line with what the Bible said would happen-- that people would be so fiercely stubborn in their desire to have war and violence and dissension and a bunch of federal government stuff going on that it'll take Jesus blasting His way back through the sky for us to get it.

But it's worth a try. Simply because Jesus said that, yeah, maybe people like the president will never speak well of you, you can still set free those you talk about Jesus with.

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