This Moment in Time: Obama in Cairo

Tomorrow, President Obama will touch down in Cairo, Egypt, to meet with the Egyptian president and address the issue of U.S.-Muslim relations. (By the time you are reading this, the 'tomorrow' of which I speak will be at least yesterday, or the day before...) I had an entirely different set of plans for today, but as I read an online article in USA Today, reporting on Obama's four-nation Middle East tour, a sense of profound import weighed upon me. I have never experienced anything quite like it before.

History in the making, and far more than many, involved in the daily business of life and survival, are cognizant.

This moment in time is engaging me in a way such as I have never been. Though I did not vote for him, from the moment of President Obama's victory, I knew something was different, for me personally, as concerned this new Commander-in-Chief. Though supporting our former President George W. Bush, and though that President was in my heart, I was not engaged with him in the way that I realized immediately I was and would be with Barack Obama. Something has changed. Perhaps it is the man himself, but I tend to think it is just as much, the times. "To everything there is a season, and a time..." (Ecclesiastes 3:1. KJV) We, as Americans, as people, and as a world community are standing at a threshold, about to step over it. We are at a moment when anything, when all things are possible.

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"What's new here is that people are listening to this president," said Shibley Telhami, a professor at the University of Maryland. "They heard him empathize with their issues. They heard him express an understanding not only of their religion and culture, but their issues." (source)

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We, too, must be willing to listen. Not carelessly, nor without caution. Not forsaking the call of our heart, nor our God, but I tell you, I read once that the attitude of the Savior is a listening attitude, and New Testament Scripture tells us as well, through the words of the apostle James, "...let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath..." (James 1:19, KJV). This Greek word translated into the English 'hear' involves the element of understanding. (Strong's Concordance, Greek #191). Listening in order to understand, while we hold our tongue and let anger take a hike for quite awhile. These instructions are presented to us in connection with the 'word of truth', from God the Father of lights, the Giver of "Every good gift and every perfect gift..." (v.17). He may have something to say to us, something other than what we expect. We may need to be willing to reconsider previous attitudes and approaches.

President Obama's approach to the Muslim world has spoken to me. I was surprised to learn that "people in Egypt and across the Islamic world want a better relationship with the United States", according to vice provost Ali Hadi of the American University in Cairo. Hadi said that"the entire world, including the Arab and Muslim worlds, was very sympathetic," after the September 11 attacks on the United States. And 76% of the respondents to a recent Gallup Poll indicate the importance to Americans of US-Muslim relations. (The monkey-wrench-in-the works here may be that too many Americans think 'extremist' when they hear the word 'Muslim', and don't realize that only 2-3% of the Muslim population fall into that category. Though the carnage wrought by this percentage is and has been great, the numbers of such violent men and women are relatively small, and we as Americans need to make it a point to remember that.) With American standing improving somewhat in the Middle Eastern world, and hopes in some of those countries rising as concerns our new President's making a difference for good, this may be the time in history when a door is opening that we cannot afford to shut. We cannot shut it with closed minds.

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"We are a growing minority, and we are misunderstood and misrepresented," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "The president is helping to undo and break down stereotypes of Muslims and also break down stereotypes of Americans." (source)

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About a year ago, a man showed up at my place of employ, with whom I one day got involved in a conversation about then-candidate Obama. This man told me that Barack Obama would win the election, which I already believed anyway, so that wasn't so unusual, except for the certainty with which he said it, and what else he added to his prediction. He told me that Barack Obama was 'from above', and was sent to fix America's problems.

After this conversation, I never saw the man again. No one else that worked with me recalled seeing him. He hadn't been there that long, so perhaps that wasn't so unusual either, but...I think it was.

Like many, I have also heard that President Obama is the Anti-Christ. Around the same time as the above incident, I was given a print-out of an email, sent by a pastor's wife, declaring absolutely that this was so. The message had an alarmist quality to it, frantically calling all to prayer. I was wary of the message, and essentially disregarded it, but kept it on a 'back burner'. There have been moments when I've thought, Hmmm...I can see how this may be true. If it is, I don't think any amount of praying will stop such an event. I don't think. However, I do think that the best course of action at this time is to heed the Scripture that tells us to "...judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts..." (1 Corinthians 4:5, KJV) There comes a moment when God shows up, and you know.

In the meantime, I wonder if it might not behoove us to avail ourselves of this declaration from the celebrated 1 Corinthians 13, that love (charity) "...believeth all things, hopeth all things..." (v.7). This may be the only way America can be restored, and move forward. It may seem foolish to some, but God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

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Thank you for stopping by....please return for my next post, in which I will address, briefly, the Israeli-Palestinian situation.