See that picture to the left there? That’s wrong––for two reasons.

First, I thought the saying, “Keep Calm and Carry On” was coined by Winston Churchill (hence the picture), but it wasn’t. And second, I thought it was a national battle cry during World War II. But,that wasn’t true either.

I was close. Sort of. The slogan was coined pre-WWII by Britain’s Shadow Ministry of Information (the Shadow government is the party not in power) in 1939 in case of war but of the three developed––“Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution; Will Bring Us Victory” and “Freedom is in Peril; Defend it with all Your Might”, “Keep Calm and Carry On” barely saw the light of day.

It wasn’t until 2000 that an original poster was discovered and then not until 2008 that it became mass produced and then popular. (That is another story in itself.) Suffice it to say that from then on, the world has been Keeping Calm and doing all sorts of things––Smiling, Pretending It’s Not Monday, Being Thankful––and the 2020 take––Washing Your Hands.

Though the original message to the British might have been not to worry, to keep that stiff upper lip and keep calm during adversity, the saying is no less essential today in the U.S.

This has been a year of worry and anger and in light of the upcoming election this Tuesday, and the subsequent results (whenever those might be finalized, so Keep Calm and Be Patient), I think we will see both anger and anxiety surface again … regardless of the result.

Once our ballot is cast, the results are out of our hands, but not God’s. “For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God” (Romans 13:1).

Therefore, we are told to control our anger and release our anxiety:

    “Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end” (Proverbs 29:11)

    “… human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires” (James 1:20)
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    Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7)

As 2020 draws to a close, it doesn’t look like the causes for anxiousness and anger will go away any time soon. But that is no reason for us to cave in to those feelings, regardless of what we believe the future holds. Only God knows what is ahead, so … Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).

Two weeks ago, the ladies section of the golf club I belong to held their club championship. This three-day competition is the culmination of the playing season and consists of various smaller competitions so those of us who have zero chance of being club champion, have other prizes to play for.

Regardless, something very interesting happens during these three days. On the whole, people don’t score as well as they have all season. Why? Because there is more pressure as we are playing for prestige and prizes; consequently, we are all hoping for three days of perfect golf. That combination never works out. So when that first errant shot or bad hole surfaces all the pressure to perform better intensifies and perfection flies right out the window––along with our hopes and dreams.

I recently read a book by sports psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella called Golf is Not a Game of Perfect. To paraphrase (and I hope I paraphrase correctly), a person will never play a perfect round of golf.  Some might come close, but weather, wind, bad lies or bounces, bad strokes, bad judgement, all interfere with a perfect round, so a player should not be discouraged if the perfect game never materializes.

Instead golfers should expect that during a round, one, two, or all of the above might occur. Errors and bad luck are not the issue. What you do next is what is important. How do you recover?

The same can be said in other sports. Even in gymnastics and diving, when athletes earn the perfect score, it does not mean the feat was without flaws. Likewise, a perfect 800 on an SAT doesn’t mean the student didn’t miss any questions. Rather in these cases all are being rewarded for being close to perfect.
 
The same can be said of our Christian walk. Yes, we strive for perfection, and perfection is God’s standard: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), but this side of heaven we will always fall short. That is clear as well: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (I John 1:8). We will lose our tempers, we will disappoint, we will make mistakes––some small, some pretty big. We will sin. We don’t want any of this to happen; we strive to avoid them, but we need to realize that as humans, they will occur.

So like in golf, it isn’t when or where we stumble or fall short that is the key issue, it’s what we do next that is important. It’s what we do to recover, to get back on track, to repair our relationship with God. Let’s remember His love, grace, and mercy. Let’s remember that each new day, hour, minute, and second is a new start, and like Paul says in Philippians 3:13-14: "I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

I received my first Christmas catalog yesterday, chock full of amazing gifts at even more amazingly inexpensive prices. And it reminded me of all the times I have fallen victim to deceptive advertising that promises great items which, in turn, will provide great results at very little cost to me. Sadly, it almost never works that way––hence, the ever popular saying: “Buyer Beware,” because hidden behind these astonishingly low prices are often a lot more costs.




We should know this. We have all the sayings. “If it sounds too good to be true, it is.” “Buy Cheap; Buy Twice.” “You get what you pay for.” “If you pay peanuts, you’re going to get monkeys.” (That one is mine.) Yet, we are still suckers for what we think is a great deal.

It made me appreciate even more the fact that God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9).

First, God’s free does offer the greatest of all possible gifts––eternal life. Of all the religions of the world, Christianity is the only free gift of salvation. ALL others (and by some counts there are almost 4300 others) require that an individual accomplish something or a series of somethings to be assured salvation. Of the major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism all describe salvation as “self-attained,” while Islam “stresses that in order to gain salvation, one must also avoid sinning along with performing good deeds.” (A feat I fail at on one end or the other on a daily basis.) In these religions, one will never really know if he or she has done enough to be saved until death, an uncertainty one must be willing to live with. Accepting God’s free gift of his son’s sacrifice offers that security immediately (John 3:16).

However, though the gift is free to accept, one’s life post-acceptance does not come without its costs. During his ministry on earth, Jesus does nothing to hide the fact that following him will have costs because we live in a world that is selfish, self-centered, self-promoting, self-aggrandizing, and any other self- descriptor you want to think of. He tells us that the world will hate you because it hated me first (John 15:18). And they hated him because he called them out and showed the emptiness and eternally expensive cost of their way of life.

No, Jesus reveals the costs right up front. In Luke 14, he tells his listeners that following him could lead to strife in families and a personal struggle to give up one’s own desires. In Mark 8:34 he reiterates this thought plus adds that each of us will have our own personal cross to bear, which in some cases could lead to death. Life will get harder not easier because we will be a very real reminder of the false advertising of this world and that the “value” of what it has to offer is sub-par, short-lived, and only temporarily satisfying.

So as you begin to thumb through your Christmas catalogs this year, looking for those special gifts at unbelievably low prices, don’t forget about the greatest gift of all, a free gift that, despite the subsequent costs, will satisfy for a lifetime and––in a twist on a Buzz Lightyear quote––provides for eternity and beyond.

I love my car. It is a 2016 Honda CR-V and I bought it for all the right reasons: It’s All Wheel Drive, gets great gas mileage, has a huge cargo space that can hold up to four sets of golf clubs and then some, and the most important reason … it made me look hip. That is I thought it did until I did a little research and learned that the average CR-V owner is a sixty-year-old woman and then my hipness plummeted.





I mention this now because Cecil (my CR-V) is in the shop––the victim of a younger driver who was driving a lifted Ford 250 Super Cab. Said driver was unaware that I was sitting in the right turn lane that he suddenly realized he needed. Unaware, that is, until he backed into me.

I could see it coming, and even though he was only going about five mph and I wasn’t going anywhere, there was enough damage to warrant a hefty repair bill.

Though I was shook up, I can’t say that I was upset, because Cecil’s dents came right in the middle of the California wildfires that were blazing out of control, eating up everything in their paths. People lost houses and loved ones. Cecil was still able to be driven.

But that wasn’t my only lesson in perspective. The day I dropped him off at the shop was the same day a friend of mine returned from San Francisco from her yearly post-cancer check up. She had an all clear. She is still cancer free. Cecil is a car.

This isn’t my first lesson in perspective, and I am sure it won’t be my last. As things happen, I have to remember that these inconveniences––even the expensive ones––pale in comparison to real heartaches and tragedies.

And finally, I need to remind myself of the most important perspective we need to have––the eternal perspective: Even in our safest of times, when life and property feel most secure, both will eventually pass away. Then what?     

The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:17)

I am ashamed of myself.

I let partisanship ideology and the media interfere with my appreciating an individual and her contributions.

What I knew about Ruth Bader Ginsburg before her death was minimal and centered around the decisions I disagreed with. But I am now realizing that there was so much more to the person and her contributions. Justice Scalia knew this. But somehow I, and many others like me, didn’t. Or lost sight of it. We put Justice Ginsberg in a very small box and set her aside even though a lot of her decisions helped us personally.

This is just another example of how micro-focusing on one issue and disregarding everything else further divides of our country. Where a disagreement on an issue justifies discounting the entire individual.

Yes, as Christians, we are to be discerning, adhering to Godly principles and standing up for Christian values, but at the very core of the Christian life is Christ himself, who loved the world--all the lost—so much that he willingly died for all of us. We are asked to love not kill others with our rhetoric, animosity, or self-righteousness.

So we can never stray from Jesus’s answer to the Pharisees when they asked him what is the greatest commandment. They wanted to trap him, to prove him wrong, or catch him in a contradiction. (Sound familiar to anyone?) His answer cut through it all.

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-38).

I have attached Josh Wilson’s new song “Revolutionary.”  It captures what is happening in our country, Jesus’s command to love, and a way to move forward.