A few days ago, I became uneasy with my clever, “Hunker Inn.” We need to stop hunkering down and hiding. Today international evangelist Mario Murillo said in his blog,
Quit wasting time staring at the door that has closed. God is opening a better one. God is not done with you—or with America.
It was said of England after World War I that the nation had lost an entire generation of leaders in the war. I wonder if history will say that about Western Civilization post 2020. Are we sacrificing the potential of students on the altar of PC and the call to put on a mask, isolate oneself, stay away from school and work—just hunker down!
A lady said, “We are living with the constant threat of the next catastrophe, disaster, unemployment and revolution.” We cannot live defensively and at the same time, live abundantly. Ivanka Trump suggested if a person(s) is laid off or unemployed they should “try something different.” That of course—along with her plugging Goya—attracted critics. She said one of my favorite clichés differently—
“If you are riding a dead horse, for your own best interest dismount!”
Fear and anxiety that drives us into the bunker is destructive. to a nation, our mental health and willingness to fight for and live out spiritual, emotional and citizen rights. Speaking of bunkers, I’m wondering when we must view the current attacks on government, civilization and Constitutional Rights and responsibilities as the English did in the World War II bombings. We do need strong leadership—as Churchill provided.
Victor Davis Hanson said recently,
“The swing voters, independents, and purple-staters are framing their 2020 choice in the stark terms of who will “make it all go away.” They want a magical end to the virus, the quarantines, the violence, the hate, and the division. And at this point, they want near-divine interventions to do all that and more.” (https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/12/trump-needs-to-scale-the-real-wall-of-2020/)
Nothing I recall is closer to the biblical portrait of the days before Anti-Christ appears. Someone who will make it all go away—near-divine interventions. No one is going to rescue us from COVID-19 or insurrection, revolution or personal craziness. “Take care of yourself,” has become my urgent benediction. “May the Lord bless you and keep you,” and don’t neglect to exercise, eat carefully, take time to think, breathe, relax and sit in your favorite place talking to Jesus.
My concern is that we are being lulled into passivity or surrender and compliance. Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians:
“I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else, too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about Him. Not only that, but most of the followers of Jesus here have become far more sure of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, and about the Messiah” (Philippians 1:14-15).
David and Karen Mains hosted radio’s Chapel of the Air. The Chapel went on the air in 1939 with David’s uncle John D. Jess as teacher and host until the middle-late 70s. In the early 1980s. David interviewed Dr. Francis Schaeffer. I don’t know of any thinking and searching evangelical who was not impacted by the thinkers Francis and Edith Schaeffer. That interview was rebroadcast recently. I listened to it this morning. It speaks to 2020.
I have heard dozens of conspiracy theories and as many prophecies. I don’t know which ones are fabrications, which are from God and how we are to fit into His plans. I do know this is not the time to hunker down or hunker in. I do know the commission is still, “Go, disciple nations.” That may mean “go out of your hunkering place and get on with the discipling.”
Praying and seeking to live America’s Vision, Mission, Brand.
Copyright 2020 D. Dean Benton
Benton Quest House 