God Works In Mysterious Ways

Every time some things happen in an unexpected way that stump our thinking, we justify by saying that God works in mysterious ways.

This is also true when unexpected things are done by people that we thought could never accomplish such things or amount to anything commendable.  Still, we say that God works in mysterious ways and saves the day.  A passable enough justification to provide logic or reason for such occurrences.

But there are instances when our own preconceived biases prevent us from seeing it that way, and instead dismiss the doer as nothing more than a charlatan or a faker.  Our usual prescription for understanding such unusual events fails to apply, and instead we turn to the other default.  The doer has to be evil, even if the expected results of his actions are exemplary.  Good cannot be eked out from such an inherently evil person.

Very early in his life, Trump had been like the many other billionaires in the world, who are never satisfied with their first million, or their first billion.  They have to have more.  Their coffers are big enough to accommodate almost all wealth in the world.  Their unmitigated craving for worldly successes and the power and influence that go with it, appear to have no limits.  The thirst just gets bigger and bigger.  Think Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc.

But something happened to Trump when he turned his sights to becoming president.  He metamorphosed into something completely different. A completely changed person.  And he must have been sufficiently prescient to realize that becoming president would make him abandon his old ways of wanting more money, or continuing to pursue his hedonistic and wayward ways, or to show complete disregard for his troubled country.  It is conventional knowledge to accede that those who enter politics would actually lose part of their wealth.  Instead he embraced the wholesome changes with will and vigor, even going some steps beyond like actually choosing not to receive his salary as president, which is no chump change.  He could be a millionaire with just his salary.  Not very much, but still a millionaire

Thus, for all discernible intents and purposes, Trump the candidate was a completely different person to the core than Trump the president.  Of course, the innate accidents of his being as a person are still there – he is still irreverent and coarse in speech, he never allows any daylight on negative comments directed at him without a scathing riposte, etc.

And his winning the election could be said to be more than surreal, though short of being mystical.  No single pollster thought he could win.  All the pundits laughed at loud at his chances of winning.  Those of his party included.  In hindsight even the now infamous and sinister-looking Peter Strzok was very bold to write that the foregone election would be 100m to zero in favor of Hillary.

And his win did not come because a greater number of voters picked him, though there are pesky questions as to how many exactly of those votes cast came from legitimate voters.  His win came from a selected number of voters who were in strategic states to give Trump the winning electoral votes, which he topped by a very comfortable margin.  Thus, no legitimate question or challenge could be asked about the win.  Simply, another “miracle” attributed to Trump from the founders via the Electoral College.

But this short of miraculous win came with a deadly price, Trump did not spare himself from the rage, anger, and mortified wrath that a committed cadre of disgruntled detractors which had not allowed him to have a moment of peace, or allowed him sufficient time to rule.   They have tried to batter him from pillar to post, unable to hold their mystified rage and rancor, from the first moments of his administration.

And this is where the US is right now.

Being on the right side of history does not assure one tremendous and overwhelming popular support from all sectors of the polity.  Many times one has to stand alone, solitary and lonely with only the godly assurance that what you are doing is righteous and thus one must soldier on, and somehow still yearn to be victorious.

And in this heady milieu of Trumpism, how can one escape the uncanny parallelism between him and another historic figure?  Granted many personal facets from both figures are almost diametrically opposite or different, but still a number of  pivotal details in their rule do jibe and can stand as healthy juxtaposition.

That historic figure was also reviled by all learned men of his time, men who occupied high social status and/or sat in the fearsome hierarchy of the ruling classes and the self-anointed ones who were pre-ordained to dispense with the knowledge and wisdom to impart to the governed.  They mocked and derided him for his unworldly claims and plebian ways.  Even his own people turned their backs on him.

His muted claim as the progenitor of their salvation and renaissance was rudely chastised and derided. And he had also inferred that following him would allow the benighted people of Israel to return to their roots in faith and become great again.  Sounds familiar?

And we continue with the self-same hope that God will continue to work in mysterious ways.