Are you hearing about difficult days?

Someone just told me about their intricate and irritating process of moving to another country. They said getting their pet by the airline’s contradictory policy monitors was more difficult than navigating the treacherous waters of their new country’s bureaucracy!

I can sympathize. I just escaped the clutches of Frankfurt airport after endless lines and understaffed security barriers. When we first de-planed in Germany, after sitting delayed on the runway, I told Gwen I could not remember the terrible airport we had gone through one time with so many checkpoints and rude employees; and then I realized –  “Oh, it is THIS one!”

What’s more,  just before I heard my emigre’s story, I had called Citi (again!) about the huge fraud left on my account by the company they bought and from which I was transferred. After I got through the waiting period on the phone, a person came on to tell me to call back later; they were in the middle of an extensive system repair! That did not make my day.

We all seem to have an “it’s difficult right now” story to tell these days. For instance, after driving from Bingen to Budapest, one of my stories is that all European Union roads are apparently under construction right now. More rebuilding will follow once the rioters are done with France, then we can tell that story.

Looking back at the United States from our rearview mirror, it was difficult to look at how much has been destroyed in so little time. When will my country be under construction again?

The deconstructive Steve Bannon prophesied during the first Trump  administration, “The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” — WP 2/23/2017. Our zone is flooded with shit, all right. I can only hope that Ramaswamy is swamped by his own smarm in Ohio.

We were looking back on a government so ruined it will probably need to be reinvented, not just reconstructed. At the beginning of the second Trump term, Jamelle Bouie prophesied:

Under the cover of an audit, he has empowered Elon Musk, his de facto co-president, to take an ax to any and every program that helps ordinary Americans. The so-called Department of Government Efficiency has stripped funds or personnel or both from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the National Park Service, the National Weather Service, FEMA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration, among others. It has degraded the federal government’s ability to deliver critical services to tens of millions of Americans and is endangering direct payments to millions more. There is no apparent rhyme or reason to these cuts, only a nihilistic drive to cause as much damage and to make it as irreparable as possible….

There is no evidence that Trump is a figure of deep thought or serious insight. There is no evidence that Trump is anything other than what he’s been for his entire time in the public eye: an ego-driven creature of boundless envy and vicious, overlapping resentments. Those resentments have led him on a grand tour of retribution against the public.

And his envy?

Well, if Trump wants anything, it is the untrammeled authority of the world’s autocrats. He wants to be a Putin or a Viktor Orban or a Kim Jong-un. He wants to rule with unchecked power. And if his psychology tells us anything, he will do everything he can to make that a reality, American democracy be damned. — Jamelle Bouie NYT 3/5/25

I guess Jamelle was right! Trump doubled down on the lie in Ramaswamy’s ad to help out with the damnation!

We came back with a little fear and trembling.

Fortunately, in the midst  of the rubble, I remembered our practice of visiting most of the church buildings we pass in Europe. There are so many beautiful, deeply prayed in, places to use! Sometimes, the the wind seems to be blowing through their spiritual aridity; many times they are cluttered with tourists and their barking guides. But they still call to us. We generally go in, kneel down and pray, empty or cluttered.

Jesus, Son of God have mercy on me…

Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name…

I am grateful to report, that such a lifelong practice of prayer is absolutely an antidote to the difficult things we are facing in the U.S. And it seems we will face more, as the match of more trouble has been lit all over the world by sociopaths seizing power, as they are wont to do when days are difficult and people are desperate.

In the face of it, try praying. Be still and know God. Jesus is walking with us.

If the church building we visit is empty, which is not that rare, we will sing our song – the same one we first sang on our pilgrimage to Santiago, now long ago.

I often come up with a mash up of the verses to “I Know My Redeemer Lives.” So I decided to look them up. I found out I did not have a traditional set of lyrics in mind. So I asked A.I. to find for me the 80’s guitarist who sang a variant version of this hymn. In less than thirty seconds, I had him: Bob Bennet, who I think my friend John Alfred introduced to our new church.

If you want to feel better about living in the rubble of post-war Pax Americana, sing along with us:

I know that my redeemer lives! What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives! He lives, who once was dead. He lives, my ever-living head.

He lives triumphant from the grave; he lives eternally to save.
He lives my mansion to prepare; he lives to lead me safely there.

He lives and grants me daily bread. He lives and I shall conquer death.
He lives and while he lives I’ll sing. He lives my prophet, priest, and king.

He lives all glory to his name! He lives my Jesus still the same.
Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives: I know that my redeemer lives.
I know that my redeemer lives!