Fortress

We are nearing Election Day. I will vote, but I am tired of diatribe. I wondered, recently, with my somewhat overactive imagination, if the raucous winds of the last days have been generated by all the hot air spewing from candidates and campaigners.

The media is trembling and vibrating with words proclaiming all sorts of news about candidates, issues, and character. My response is consistent. I have the mute button close at hand. I have recycled a tree (from the political stuff in my mailbox) and I have hung up on more automated phone calls that I care to count. At times that feels rude, because I like to be a good listener... I consider myself a person who resists judging anybody's words as unworthy of my attention (at least until they prove themselves otherwise).

Then I realize, that choosing the object of one's attention requires some intentional choices. In that regard, I turn my focus to the message that will reverberate in myriad churches this Sunday.

The choirs and instrumentalists are gearing up to sing and play "A Mighty Fortress" with zeal. (Bear with me, my readers who are not Lutheran!)

The images painted by the hymn define our daily life as one that is fraught with danger...with the possibility of being vanquished by powers and principalities that stops at nothing to undermine our safe life and peaceful death. We are reminded of the certainty of the fortress which is God...in all times, places and circumstances.





Election Day will come and go. The balance of the political arena will tip and teeter, perhaps. Reformation Day will come and go. The church will tip and teeter with changes--some desired, some avoided and some lamented.

My soul yearns for a fortress...and I know where it is secure.

Thanks and Praise be to God!