“We have forgotten — or perhaps never really understood — what it means to trust that God is in control.
Politics matters.
But we have forgotten that good political leaders were supposed to be our gift to the world.
Now we think they are something the world has to give us, so we can truly practice our faith — or feel good about ourselves.
So whenever we see a leader — inside or outside the church — who doesn’t seem to honor our truth, we are filled with anguish; and act like God has abandoned us… ”

Music Playlist: The Agony of Hope

Our family is attending a Christian-ish conference.
There’s large shared living spaces where we can hang out, eat pizza, and mingle with the other families.
The content isn’t explicitly Christian,
But there is a worship band before each session.

I am hanging out with a puppeteer.
His main puppet seems to be a large dog.
I met him when I had my small puppy puppet pretend to play with his
I was sitting near him on the floor, watching the parade go by.

Another hanger-on (a guy) asks the puppeteer if he can ask for a favor.
He says yes.
The guy asks if he can have the unusually soft blanket used by the dog puppet.
The puppeteer grimaces.
“Normally I’d say yes, but that particular blanket is rare and expensive.”
The guy says, “I know, that’s why I asked for yours!”

Later we are in some sort of diner.
A Teacher is wandering the aisles, talking about the leadership of the conference.
He is neither condemning nor praising them; just trying to help us understand what they do.

A guy at my table gets really agitated, and makes a snide comment about the leaders.
The Teacher pauses and comes over.
He looks at the guy.
He is not angry.
He seems curious.

The Teacher asks: “Is there something bothering you?”
The guy is too embarrassed to say anything.
To my surprise, the Teacher turns to me
He asks: “Why do you think he was upset?”

I give the answer quoted at the beginning of this blog post.

We have forgotten — or perhaps never really understood — what it means to trust that God is in control.

Or something that felt like that.
Then I wake up.

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Note: The blanket represents comfort; perhaps consolation.
The world is desperate for ours.
But we don’t seem to have any to spare…