Cautious Optimism

By:  Dale Weckbacher

Ephesians 6:18

 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 

(ESV)

Most of us try to live our lives with optimism about our futures.  We go to work each day optimistic that what we do for a living will improve the financial situation for our ourselves and our families.  We invest optimistic that our investments will grow into a nest egg that will care for us in our retirement.  We borrow money to buy cars or homes optimistic that we will have the income to make the payments. 

Unfortunately, the last eight years of the Obama administration has caused this optimism to vanish for many.  Over that eight-year period we have witnessed an increase of people dependent on government assistance due to anemic economic growth and stagnant wages.  (1)  In 2008 Obama won election running on a promise of hope and change creating an atmosphere of great optimism for many believing their lives would improve but instead of implementing programs that had results, his policies created a matrix of complex programs and regulations resulting in an expanded ineffective bureaucracy and massive debt for future generations to pay back.  (2) 

In 2010 voters reacted to the transformational policies of Obama like Obamacare by taking control of the House of Representatives back from Obama’s political party to begin blocking change they saw as detrimental to their futures. (3) In other words, voters were seeing their optimism fade and wanted to stop it before it completely vanished.  However, the Tea Party Movement that drove the Republican takeover in the House was later rendered ineffective by the Obama controlled IRS possibly leading to the re-election of Obama despite the unpopularity of his policies.  (4)  The evidence supporting this belief is the suppression of voter turnout due in part to the stalling of the Tea Party Movement. 

However, in 2014 after 6 years of failed Obama policies, voters once again showed up at the polls in a resurgence of the Tea Party and not only retained control of the House of Representatives but gained control of the U.S. Senate.  (5) (6)  Now with the election of Donald Trump as the nation’s 45^th President coupled with a Republican controlled House and Senate, we are witnessing a resurgence of optimism.  Even though Donald Trump has not even been sworn into office, the stock market has reacted with record gains as a reflection of the restoration of optimism.  (7)  

While I am excited about the restoration of optimism, I am also cautious.  History has demonstrated the fragile nature of optimism.  Many believed the election of Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 would usher in the dismantling of many of the failed policies of Roosevelt’s New Deal only to see their optimism vanish as these policies remained engrained the bureaucracy.  Others believed the election of Ronald Reagan would dismantle LBJ’s great society only to see the entitlement system remain intact.  Most recently, we have seen the optimism of the elimination of racism with the election of the nation’s first African American President vanish with racially driven riots in the streets.  (2)

Therefore, I remain cautiously optimistic about the Trump Administration.  The recounts and attempts to sabotage the Electoral College are most likely just the beginning of attempts by liberals to sabotage making America great again and kill the optimism about the Trump administration.  We therefore must,

1)      Be diligent in prayer (James 5:13-18) – Prayer is a powerful tool and not one to be taken lightly.  Pray for a revival to sweep across our world drawing people to God who has the answers they are seeking for.  Pray for believers all over the world that God will keep them save and empower them to share the good news of the Gospel.  We also must pray for our leaders that they will lead with Godly wisdom.  We are in a spiritual war so we must also pray to bind the evil attempting to destroy people in our world by preventing them from hearing the Gospel (Matthew16:19). 

2)      Be diligent in word – Our words are powerful.  They can be a source of destruction (James 3:6) or, if our words are the word of God, they can be words of praise towards God (Hebrews 13:15).  Let us therefore as children of God, guard our lips.  Let our lips speak the good news from God for a lost and dying world has an abundance of destructive language that is leading to its destruction and needs to hear the good news of the Gospel.

3)      Be diligent in action – It is said that actions speak louder than words.  One thing that became abundantly clear in this year’s election in the United States is that we cannot always believe what someone says or what we hear in the media or online.  One way to test the truth of someone’s words is to test if their words match their actions.  This is what I believe James referred to when he said faith without works is dead (James 2:17).  A lost and dying world that has had its fill of empty words needs to see Christians not only speaking words of faith but also living their lives following these words of faith. 

2017 is a year of great optimism and hope for many.  However, we are still engaged in a spiritual war and must be diligent in prayer, word, and action or we may once again experience the vanishing or our optimism.  I therefore encourage all my readers to join me in praying, speaking words of faith, and living for God in order to be a light desperately needed in our dark world. 

1. Jeffrey, Thomas P. Liberalism's Legacy: Debt and Dependency. www.chsnews.com. [Online] CNS News, February 11, 2016. [Cited: December 22, 2016.] http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/liberalisms-legacy-debt-and-dependency.

2. Zelizer, Julian E. The Wreckage of Obama's Legacy. www.nytimes.com. [Online] The New York Times, November 19, 2016. [Cited: December 22, 2016.] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/sunday/the-wreckage-of-obamas-legacy.html?_r=0.

3. CNN Wire Staff. GOP roars back to take U.S. House; Democrats cling to Senate majority. www.cnn.com. [Online] CNN Politics, November 3, 2010. [Cited: December 22, 2016.] http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/02/election.main/.

4. Washington Examiner. Study Finds IRS Suppression Of Tea Party Swung 2012 Election. nation.foxnews.com. [Online] Fox Nation, November 11, 2013. [Cited: December 22, 2016.] http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/11/11/study-finds-irs-suppression-tea-party-swung-2012-election.

5. Collinson, Stephen. Republicans seize Senate, gaining full control of Congress. www.cnn.com. [Online] CNN Politics, November 5, 2014. [Cited: December 22, 2016.] http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/04/politics/election-day-story/.

6. III, Nate Delesline. Analysts: Tea party resurgence to play significant role in midterm elections. www.roanoke.com. [Online] The Roanoke Times, July 5, 2014. [Cited: December 22, 2016.] http://www.roanoke.com/news/virginia/analysts-tea-party-resurgence-to-play-significant-role-in-midterm/article_9a10eb0a-0566-543e-a0f7-edd9ce638153.html.

7. Egan, Matt. Dow zooms over 1,200 points since Trump victory. money.cnn.com. [Online] CNN Money, December 7, 2016. [Cited: December 22, 2016.] http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/07/investing/trump-dow-jones-1000-points-election/.