Today

There are a lot of people who are very excited about today and the inauguration, and I am glad for them.  There are also a lot of people who are very very scared about today and the inauguration, for completely different reasons than why everybody else is excited.  Mike fits into that second group of people. His deep concern today comes from fear surrounding the apparent policy stand that the new president takes on both social and economic issues, among others, and fear that the country he loves so dearly is about to change forever for the worse.  So, this is for him and anybody else who might be feeling how he is feeling (warning: this is from an LDS perspective, so if you don't have one, you might not "get it").  

At a recent stake conference a speaker related the following story.  There was a man who loved to watch football, and he got really into it.  He would yell at the tv, pull his hair out in frustration at bad calls, and get so anxious that his teams would lose that he would get knots in his stomach as he watched.  It was so bad that the children were not allowed to be in the same room as him when he watched!  One day, he wasn't going to be around to watch his game, so he recorded it.  Sometime between when the game happened and he was able to watch it, he accidently overheard the outcome of the game.  When he went to watch it finally, he found he was not anxious as usual.  He was peaceful-- he already knew that his team was going to win.  

This same principle applies today, I think.  If we claim to believe in the scriptures and in modern revelation, then we must acknowledge that the outcome of the "game" of this world is already known.  We don't need to tie ourselves up in knots over what will happen with the world.  As long as we align ourselves with the winning team, so to speak, we have nothing to fear.  We know that "the wrong shall fail, the right prevail."  

Whether or not the fabric of America is going to change forever with this new administration is unknown at this point.  It just may be that America will not be the great nation she once was, as Mike and others fear.  But I say, if that is to happen... I would be very sad, but the point of this life and this world was not that America should be great, but that the Kingdom of God should be built upon it [the world]. America served as the vehicle through which this restoration was able to take place.  The things that are greatest about this nation are ours because God granted them to us, and inspired a government to be set up that would allow those freedoms to prosper.  Whatever happens to this country will not change what our Father in Heaven has in store for us. 

"May the Lord bless us, and may the Spirit of the Lord abide with, and continue to surround and overshadow us, and may we not be fearful because of the oppressor and the wicked, but trust in the living God, and He will continue to protect us all the day long, and no power can prevail against us.  If we were not one tenth as numerous as we are, what would it matter; if God be on our side, He can use up the wicked, and protect us.  

"And as has been said by the First Presidency, all that we have to fear is our own wickedness, and corruptions, and liability to depart from the true faith.  If we will be true and righteous, and if we will have faith in God, this is all that is required.  

"If we are faithful to our covenants, the fury of the oppressor will not harm us, and where will be the strong arm of man?  It will be like the flax in the flame, like a moth-eaten garment, the wicked shall vanish away, and there will be no place found for them.

"Then hearken to the counsel that proceeds from the First Presidency, and hold up your heads, and do not let them droop, and in this way, we shall prosper, and obtain a holy dwelling place in the presence of our God for ever." 

-Orson Pratt, "The Kingdom of God," July 8, 1855. Printed in "Just and Holy Principles: Latter- Day Saint Readings on America and the Constitution"

I'm not saying with any of this that I expect our country to topple.  I'm just saying that, if it did, we could still have confidence in knowing that God's purposes will go forth.  But, to salve any worried minds, I have this quote:

"I reverence the Constitution of the United States as a sacred document.  To me its words are akin to the revelations of God, for God has placed his stamp of approval on the Constitution of this land.  I testify that the God of heaven sent some of his choicest spirits to lay the foundation of this government, and he has sent other choice spirits-- even you who hear my words this day-- to preserve it. 

"We, the blessed beneficiaries, face difficult days in this beloved land, "a land which is choice above all other lands" (Ether 2:10).  It may also cost us blood before we are through.  It is my conviction, however, that when the Lord comes, the Stars and Stripes will be floating on the breeze over this people.  May it be so, and may God give us the faith and the courage exhibited by those patriots who pledged their lives and fortunes that we might be free."

-Ezra Taft Benson, "The Constitution -- A Heavenly Banner." Sept. 16, 1986

Trust in the power of our Heavenly Father to see that everything will turn out right, just, and good.  I was listening to a really great rendition of "All Creatures of our God and King" today, and the thought that was really impressed on my mind was that He really knows what he's doing, and has been gracious enough to offer us a glimpse of the end so that we don't have to be that guy white-knuckling it during monday night football.