September 21: You don't harvest strawberries after planting arugula

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows."

It is so easy for me to read this and be reminded of the seeming travesty that is developing in elections in two countries close to my heart.  

In one of them, a country bemoaning government corruption, two of the candidates are best known for corruption, and a third - who leads the pack - may not even be eligible to run...and I think to myself, if one is unwilling to demand honesty through the electoral process, how does one expect honesty in government?  One reaps what one sows.  

In the other country, many bemoan the current administration's lack of respect for the rule of law, and lack of respect for the office overall.  And yet there, of the two leading candidates, one is a minor celebrity for whom, it would seem, misogyny and insult constitute discourse and articulation; and the other seems to think they are above the inconvenience of rules meant to safeguard government.  How then does one expect improvement in government?  One reaps what one sows.

And yet, after lamenting the situations above, I am reminded of how much I am very much the same way.  I aspire to a relationship with God, but there are countless mornings I have set aside prayer and scripture.  I aspire to teach my children the right way, but have countless times showed them a poor example.  I aspire to be a good husband, yet I do not express my love for my wife in ways she will appreciate.  I reap what I sow.  

"You who answer prayer, to you all people will come. 

    When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions."

My situation would be impossibly overwhelming, would be cause only for despair, if I - if we - were dependent only upon our own devices.  But the fact is, our God, "who formed the mountains by [His] power...who stilled the roaring of the seas...", our God "answer[s] us with awesome and righteous deeds".  He is "God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas."

And so, as impossible as it may seem to man, we can still have hope - for elections, for candidates, and for ourselves - because our hope rests not on man, but on God.

And because I hope in God, despite myself, I can hope to raise righteous children, and be the father described in today's proverb.