Note: On Saturdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account. (Hebrews 4:13 NRSVCE)
With apologies to Charles Dickens, it is a time unlike any other and yet a time like every other.
We fear for our way of life—or fear it’s already been taken away. We believe political leaders, in our country and abroad, are demonic—or we believe those who oppose them are demonic. We spend a lot of time judging or praising others, often people we never have and never will meet, but believe we can see into their innermost souls and determine their motivations and ambitions.
All of this, of course, conveniently takes up time we personally could be spending on feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, praying for the living and the dead, and so on. It’s easier to wring our hands and pontificate on social media than to actually do what God desires.
Inaction is rarely the answer to any problem, writ large or writ small. Action for personal gain or vengeance in response to a problem also rarely solves anything. So in this time both unlike and like any other, may we remember the constant—that God sees everything, and it is God, not our friends or enemies, to whom we must account.
