November 15, 2010
Poor President Obama. He just doesn’t look like a happy camper these days. Certainly he’s not the first president to loose the House of Representatives two years into office, but then, I believe Barry the Beloved has fallen from much higher pinnacles than your average Commander-In-Chief.
It’s difficult to come up with a suitable analogy, but let me take a wild stab: Just imagine God Himself getting fired because He discovered one day that He actually wasn’t God. One cannot imagine a more depressing day in the universe. For the record, I am not a birther but at times it’s tempting to wonder if Obama’s refusal to supply a birth certificate emanates from the mistaken impression that such documents are not issued to virgin mothers.
Of course, nobody knows what truly goes on in the man’s mind. Tongue-in cheek put aside, I’m sure our president is very aware of his own mortality. But there are lessor “god like” positions that we volley for as human beings. Everybody wants to believe they’re special with something unique to offer life. Understandable so far, but when our thirst for affirmation comes at the expense of needing to control other people (their income and consequent redistribution, their health care, their choices for food, cars, or radio shows to listen to) then we must re-evaluate the stone pedestal built brick by brick with ambitious cement in between. One can hardly blame Obama for being just a tad bit full of himself. After all, his delusions of grandeur were reinforced by a naive public, including women who fainted in the middle of his speeches.
Before casting too much judgment, we’d be well served by some personal reflection. Everybody speaks against dictators, failing to notice how embryonic dictators surround us daily. From the boss at work who micro manages rather than encouraging people to be the best they can, to the mother who plans out a future for her offspring to make up for any shortcoming or personal failure, to the gossip whose lack of self esteem is (seemingly) elevated by putting down another, dictatorhood is a common disease. Most people will never fall into the circumstances that would enable them to run a country. But we get sneak peeks at how they would run a nation when we observe how they run their families, employees and friends. For myself, there is zero desire to control other people. But how often do I unintentionally affect my friends regardless of such noble intentions, by nursing a bad mood or making uncalled for negative remarks about our nutty world when somebody is trying to escape the dreariness just for a few hours?
And then, there’s that parallel problem. Even if we are not controlling others, we all want to control our own lives: Enter, the real God from stage right. He created us to serve Him. Only by aligning our will with the Creator of our souls, will we also reach sideways with pure motivation for a better relationship with people.
Make no mistake, President Obama certainly deserves the challenges coming his way. But let us not exaggerate his importance. Otherwise we make the same mistake as his blind, trusting fans. Falling victim to ego and power comes easily to humans. It is our joint heritage. The Bible gave it another name: Sin.
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