Jimmy Carter: A Tribute To  Not Forgetting God in  Governance 

We must remember at all times who keeps us each day, who delivers us from all evil, who walks with us through our valley gulleys and up roughside to our mountain tops.

Many years ago, in the American state of Connecticut while touring a museum  somewhere I now can’t recall, I came across a painting of the 1776 Founding Convention of my nation I have yet to see elsewhere.Thus, I regret immensely not taking a picture of it. Namely, it was, is, an oil  painting of the founders of my nation on their knees praying..

In these super secular American and other national times where we are gleefully taking God out of everything in public life, let alone private personal life; at best turning  God into a pawn or trinket of right or left wing identity politics or just expected ritual mention of religious affiliation, it is no longer widely  acknowledged that the world is a spiritual place with God  firmly eternally at the controls. And so we  minimize and even  ridicule the role of religious identity and practice and much more spirituality in national presiding governance   leadership as seen in the mixed tributes given to recently demised former executive branch U. S. President Jimmy Carter. He was and still is called religious with ridicule such as to this day poking fun at his  1976 Playboy magazine Presidential candidate interview remark  that he had   “looked on a lot of women with lust and committed adultery in my heart many times.” But say and ridicule all you wish but God is really always here. Indeed..

We must remember at all times who keeps us each day, who delivers us from all  evil, who walks with  us through our valley gulleys  and up roughside to our mountain tops, who pays all bills, heals us, hears us, and who gives us joy in the morning and all day and evening long not because we don’t hurt or because it is funny when we and others get hurt but because God, not “ but God” but because God is the ultimate we need in our lives so hold on to God in thick and thin and in all seasons like the summers and winters in our lives because nothing so material, so social, so emotional and so  political can do for you and me what  God IS can do be it in the midnight hours or high noons of our lives or  in the shallow brooks we must wade or deep seas we must  swim across.

So let us pray let us believe today in God, live for God as we start our day, go through our day and take our rest as we mediate how good once again God has been good to you and me despite our flaws and shortcomings and our strengths. So no matter how good or bad things are in life no matter how good or bad people are in our lives just hold on to God’s divine unchanging  hand always there ;which never will slip from our grip always there to comfort us  and protect us  and bless us  through the sunny and stormy days; and be loyal and committed to us forever more  , never let us down because of our  unwavering faith in God who is always here wiping our tears, making our darkness light, doing the impossible, giving us improbable blessings, and taking us to places beyond our mortal imaginations.

So just grasp and hold on to the divine hand of God no matter who is presiding over  our, your nation where ever you are. National presiders in all branches of governance come and go more or less but lest we forget remember God is still  always here in divine control, watching, and doing  so continue your God encouraging  stand for love, justice, and  peace for everyone, anywhere, everywhere . Lest we forget, God is really still here.

Prof. John H. Stanfield II
Prof. John H. Stanfield II
Director ASARPI: The Institute for Advanced Study of African Renaissance Policies Ideas Mauritius and South Africa former University of Mauritius SSR Chair of African Studies