Well, Can They?

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord 
and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.  
He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, 
and they were very dry.  

He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?"  

I answered, "O Lord God, you know."

-Ezekiel 37: 1-3

The other night we decided to try and figure out our kids Myers-Briggs personality types.  As it turns out Jack is very much like me, an INTJ (though I am pretty neutral between judging and perceiving so sometimes I come out as an INTP, I probably was a super J though when I was just about to turn 13).  I read my son the characteristics of an INTJ, and something kept making him laugh: the fact that we hate to be wrong.  We would rather be right than nice, we would rather hold to the truth than protect people's feelings.  This has been real growing edge for me as I try to be a pastor, because in so much of what I do handling feelings and treating people with decency is a prerequisite for representing the truth of God's love for humankind.

I woke up this morning having to deal with the reality that I have been really wrong.  I assumed that Hillary Clinton was going to win this election, because Trump was just too bizarre for the American people.  I was incorrect in that assumption, now we all have to live with it.  I now actually find myself hoping (and praying even) that I am wrong about him.  I hope that he is not the proto-fascist that I have seen in his strong-man campaigning.  I hope he is not the bigot that the KKK apparently thinks he is, or the sexist that his "locker room talk" would make him out to be.

Four years from now, I would very much like to look back on the sour stomach and gloomy feelings of this rainy Wednesday and find that my anxiety about President Trump was unfounded.  I don't much care about the mechanisms of that relief, if it is four years of foundering and chaos, where he Forrest Gumps his way through, so be it.  If he actually does manage to "make America great," (I refuse to say again), all the better.

I have the feeling that I will be spending quite a bit of time in Ezekiel and the prophets in the near future.  I need to be reminded that God is with us, even in exile, no matter who the king is.  That's what I told my children this morning as we waited for the bus, I told them that the Bible is full of stories where God works despite of, and in direct opposition to the principalities and powers.  I have known this for quite some time, but I was holding on to a perhaps vain hope that maybe I would not live to see such days.

But here we are, and from my perspective the bones look very dry, but I must trust and know that they can live. I must also be aware of the reality that, if they do, it will probably be in surprising and unexpected ways. I have to put my selfish desire for vindication away.  I do not want the Trump presidency to be a disaster, even though it would prove that I was right.

So, now that the deed is done, and the vote is cast, I will pray for the shalom of the nation in which we live.  If Daniel can live under Nebuchadnezzar, if Elijah can survive Ahab and Jezebel, if Ezekiel can see the Lord of Hosts beside the rivers of Babylon, I can find God at work here in this time, in this place.