…But the Greatest of these has Compassion

I had the pleasure of watching this year’s last Presidential debate with my husband this past Wednesday. It was one of McCain’s better debates, though I certainly enjoyed Palin much more। I really appreciate the woman’s wit. My enthusiasm about Governor Palin aside, there was one particular thing about Obama that stood out in a major way this past Wednesday. One thing that I believe really makes the difference between a true leader verses a counterfeit one.

All great leaders that history remembers well and in a positive light have this particular character trait। George Washington had it, Lincoln had it, Reagan had it, John Ashcroft had it, and I’m sure you would even be able to think of some people that you personally know of in your own life who are leaders who have it. It’s disturbing to me that there is a possibility that we could end up with a President who thinks that the American people are so cold that we don’t care and don’t weigh the importance of calculated, cruel, careless words. It’s even more disturbing to think that a Presidential contender thinks that there’s nothing wrong with these types of words and that they are, "…the stuff campaigns are made of". These facts came out about Obama when the debate moderator asked McCain and Obama if they could look each other in the eyes and say to each other the things that were being said in their campaign ads. And it was Obama who was of the opinion that the American people were not real concerned about "hurt feelings".

God help us if this is true। Because if it is, then we have lost our compassion and our love has waxed cold and the greatest element of true character has died in this nation. When we are no longer concerned about the hurting, then neither will we be concerned about the enslaved, the oppressed, the innocent, the widow, the orphan, the poor, the jobless, the hungry…and we will no longer be concerned about what makes a godly leader who cares enough to lead this country in a way that is honorable. It is written in Proverbs 16:7 that when a man’s ways please the Lord, that the Lord will make even that man’s enemies to be at peace with him. If we no longer have compassion, if we no longer care about "hurt feelings", even if it does start in the context of a Presidential campaign, then in the end, we will no longer have peace in this nation.

We are very blessed in this generation in that we really don’t know what it looks like to have a war come to our own soil. The closest we’ve seen to that is the 9-11 attacks. But we could certainly get a clue about what it looks like for war to come to our own soil just by reading what is happening in places like Georgia, and remembering Hitler’s awful attempts to wipe out the Jews and then take over the world. He wasn’t going to stop with the Jews, you know. And the only reason that he was stopped in the end was because our country and our allies stood up to him and our God delivered the victory into our hands. And why did He deliver the victory into our hands? Because we cared.