'Avoid tribalism, respect facts and listen to history'

"Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all sins" (Proverbs 10:12). I love this verse. It's the first thing my eyes landed on when I looked up the proverb of the day, Proverbs 10. I love the book of Proverbs because it has so many wise sayings in it. And we certianly need wisdom in this day and age: God's wisdom. I see that a lot of people in the U.S. are worrying about what's happening with the government. People in America need to calm down. Honestly, I can't figure out where all these people have been for the past four years that they are rising up and complaining about what's happening now. But this is America and this is how America rolls. I'm just glad Jesus Christ is on the Throne, and God Almighty is sovereign. People who have never trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior will be messed up if they are fighting God. If they don't figure it out and get right with God, things are only going to get worse. I'm sorry to be so blunt about it, but that is exactly what is going to happen. I love this line in the movie "Rudy": A priest said to him, "There is a God, and you're not Him." People just seem to be going nuts over all the things that are happening in the country right now. I have begun reading a book that came out in 2019 by Jon Meacham called "The Soul of America: The Battle for our Better Angels." I have figured out that the man does not share my political persuasion, but that doesn't matter. He is a New York Times bestselling historian and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and the best line I've read in the book so far is, "Avoid tribalism, respect facts and listen to history." I don't expect to find all the answers in this book or any book for that matter. All the answers are in the Bible, but I love to read what smart people have to say about all these things even if I don't agree with everything they say. I think I may have read one of his books. I have actually read TWO books by him: "2006)American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation" (2006) and "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power" (2012). They were both good, especially the Jefferson one. I loved it. I think everybody should read books about the Founding Fathers. They are both informative and inspirational. So I'm looking forward to reading "The Soul of America." I know that he doesn't like Trump, so I can recommend it to anyone who doesn't like Trump as well as I can recommend it to anyone who does like Trump. We should all read books that are informative about history, even if we disagree with their bias. That is what makes America the most unique country in the world. Just from reading a few pages, I already know that what his main idea is, is that there has always been struggling and strife in America, and that we have (as a country) survived much worse times than this one. But I don't just trust a book to calm me down in the middle of stress about the way the country is going. I trust in God, and that is, as you know, one of our national mottos: "In God We Trust." The prevailing emotion in social media where politics are concerned at least, seems to be hate, and that is nothing other than a manifestation of our sinful nature as human beings. As long as we are sinful people and the governments of the world (including ours) are run by sinful people, we are not going to arrive at some kind of utopia; we're just not. But we can work on ourselves and not hate other people all the time. That is on us. Hate is the root of every crime and every disaster between people. So why do we enjoy hating so much? Does it make us feel powerful? Does it make us feel in control? Well, you know it does both of those things, and it's nothing but a lie because it doesn't make us more powerful or more in control. We are neither of these things. So why don't we just stop trying to change the world and control everyone and everything, and work on ourselves instead? That's what we need to do. So I think I'll wrap this up and go read Proverbs 10 all the way through and also whatever else I was supposed to read this morning and this evening and didn't do it, and read a little in that book. I am now reading three books that will take me forever to finish now. One is fiction, for light reading, a book called “Hester,” about the woman in “The Scarlet Letter.” Another one is "The Gathering Storm" by Winston Churchill, and now I want to read that third Jon Meacham book. I'll let you know what I'm learning in it, but I recommend that everyone find books like this to read, and while you're at it, read the Constitution. Everyone likes to talk about it, but I don't think everybody who is talking about it loudly in the news, etc., actually reads it! Or read in history about how the people in our government have virtually ignored the Constitution for generations. I'm not going to go into it right now, but a lot of people need their eyes opened and also need to understand that the present day news media is filled with a lot of activists, not reporters, and we really should be doing more of our own research into what the country is experiencing so we can know how to get involved and know what we're voting on, etc. I am not going to start complaining now, but as much as I believe the government bureaucracy has been stealing and lying to us for generations, I still trust the Constitution and the wisdom of the Founding Fathers. We've been through a lot and we're still standing and getting stronger, regardless of what all the paranoid people are whining about. Sorry, not sorry.