Looking for a Savior

If you want proof that the world is looking for a savior, you need no more proof than what has happened this week. The events are ironic. You may think they are unrelated but I know God allows us to look at ourselves because He want us to understand ourselves better. He wants us to understand what we fear and what we want.

The week started out by the Obama Administration making a tough decision to dis-invite the Dalai Lama. That wasn’t easy. Previous Presidents for the past 18 years have welcomed him at the White House. President Obama’s team., hypersensitive to criticism from the Chinese chose not to.

Who is the Dalai Lama? He is a person who woke up one day as a child only to discover that everyone in his world looked to him for ultimate guidance. It must have been a shock. From then on, he was surrounded by people who would write down every utterance. How long did it take for him to realize the power that he wielded? How long did it take for him to understand the responsibility? His words are like spiritual light sabers. A careless word in an unintentional direction could change a life. To the Tibetan people, he is the connection to the source of life and its path to the future. His role is to illuminate the way.

The Dalai Lama is not chosen, he is anointed. When the previous one died, the faithful Tibetan Monks set about to search for the child on whom the anointing had fallen. It is interesting that in anticipation of that occurring again, the Chinese Government recently made a law that he cannot be born in China.

Just think of the responsibility one has to be the anointed one. It makes you wonder. Being anointed where every word you say is taken so seriously must be hard on you. But then being rejected by those who are not part of the faithful must get to be even harder on you.

Barack Obama rejected the Dalai Lama. Then he woke up and found that a Norwegian Panel gave him the Nobel Prize, not for what he has done, but for what they hope he is. It turns out that they have been pouring over the words he has spoken. Do his words have the weight of anointing? They recorded them and studied them. Is this the anointed one? Perhaps he is the one. Oh I am not criticizing President Obama here. I am pointing out that like the Tibetans, western civilization is just as earnestly looking for that anointed one.

I think Obama should have invited the Dalai Lama in. I think that behind closed doors the Dalai Lama could have had a good talk with him. It would have done President Obama good. The Dalai Lama could have given him his little smile and they could have agreed that the world is a desperate place. It definitely needs a savior. And they aren’t it. Then they should have pulled together the old band Ten Years After and had them address the press on the Rose Garden. 

"People of the world - Mr. Lama and I have something to share with you.  And we have decided to let Alvin Lee do it."

Never Give Up

A young lady, a very quiet young woman with a small child has been coming to church lately.  She gave a testimony today that really took me by surprise.  It was a testimony about how she came to know that God loves her.  She had originally considered Him as a rule enforcer, lacking love.  But she came to know Him as the One who loves her.  He was with her in an ambulance ride when she died from complications of an asthma attack.  He saved her. 

But her testimony was not about that as much as it was about the fact that she is alright with the parts of her life that he hasn’t touched.  She still has asthma.  She still works hard and lives from paycheck to paycheck with her little son.  She implored all of us to continue to let others know what He has done and what He is capable of doing.  Perhaps he hasn’t done everything that we want, but He has done much more than we could have ever asked for.  She encouraged us to live a life going forward as people who not only never give up, but as encouragers to others for the very same thing. 

I felt convicted of my easy-believism. Thank God that He isn’t impatient with me.  I have used some bad excuses for not coming through for Him.  I have had many “important reasons” why I have postponed decisions to lay down something for Him.  He has not given up on me even when I have taken an offense and threatened to give up on Him.  The message, if it came from a Super Bowl Champion would mean very little to me.  But the fact that an impassioned exhortation to never give up came from a small little lady who is believing that someday she will not have to have her inhaler, well, that impacted me.  If she can encourage us to stand strong, then  I can stand strong.  If she can encourage us to continue to keep going and to praise Him every step of the way, then I can do that.