Spanked by the Anchoress

And she's not the only one! After moping and maudlin behavior yesterday, partly due to end-of-week-itis fatigue (although that is certainly not an excuse--especially on Veteran's Day for heavens sake!), I read two posts that smacked me good and got my attention.

Every once in a while a Hell, Fire, and Brimstone, and stern words of exhortation are good for the soul. Today at church, we had a sermon on Faith. The scripture that stuck with me in Hebrews 11:

13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

And then, tonight, The Anchoress says this:

I know many people are depressed, but while I am not happy about the election outcome, I do think it’s unseemly for Christians, at least, to be depressed…our God is not politics or the GOP, right?

Yes, ma'am. You are absolutely correct. She gives an example of divine providence and why our faith should be in Above not men:

Good always overcomes evil…we just don’t always understand what that looks like while we’re in the thick of things, or recognise it when it comes our way. But the Holy Spirit has a way of working with things that look like disasters, and making them work for the best. Remember when Rudy Giuliani had to bow out of the senate race from the prostate cancer? Everyone mourned, we know only he could beat Hillary and we thought, “what a freaking disaster…”

But because he bowed out of that race, he was the mayor of NYC when 9/11 happened…and he was exactly the man that needed to be there. Had he been a senator, the truly goofy and uninspiring Mark Greene would have been mayor and he would have terrified us even more.

Like The Anchoress, I felt that Rudy was there for a reason. He was a man for a season.

And then, via Instapundit, I read Mary Katherine Ham's brilliant piece. She said:

That same attitude is written all over the Democrats' reactions to electoral losses since 2000. They haven't trusted the judgment of the people and worked to change their message to reach them. Instead they have blamed the American people for being clods and dullards who are inexplicably disinclined to vote "in their own self-interest." Remember "What's Wrong With Kansas?" and "How CAn 59,054,087 People Be So Dumb?"

Alternatively, they have blamed Diebold and Bush for stealing elections because, after all, how can 59,054,087 people be so dumb, right? It must have been a conspiracy.

I'm so glad our side doesn't act the same way.

Most importantly, we didn’t lose because our countrymen suddenly misplaced the virtues that make America great. It is a distinctly liberal trait to blame “the people” when they don’t vote as one would dictate. I’ll brook none of that from our side. The fact is, we thought our country would be better off with a Republican congress. We made a case to the American people. They didn’t buy it because they thought it was a weak case.

OK, so time to get back to work. And what will that work look like? I have some ideas and so do other much smarter people, but that's for another post coming to you soon.