It’s been a weird summer so far

Longtime actor George Clooney (you loved him in hits like Ocean’s Eleven, ER, and The Facts of Life) recently took to the pages of that great American pamphlet of record, The New York Times, to flex about all the fundraisers he’s hosted for the Democratic Party and to exert his influence over this year’s election cycle. We knew him as a handsome, roguish star of the big and small screen, but we had no idea how much we needed his political insights—until now.

In one fell swoop, Clooney helped circumnavigate decades of American political process (you know, the part where people get to vote for which candidate represents them), all in the name of “democracy,” which he swears Joe Biden “restored” in 2020. “Democracy,” in this case, is coded language for “whatever I personally believe.” In Clooney’s version, the American voting public gets to pick their guy, until it becomes painfully obvious after one debate and one interview that their guy has no chance of winning—at which point the celebrities will step in and take it from there, thank you very much.

Clooney’s version of “democracy” may also include forcing you to drive an electric car, limiting the amount of energy you can use around your home, and regulating everything from how your small business operates to what kind of tires you can put on your government-mandated heavy EV. A gallon of milk is going to cost $94 and a gallon of gas will be $110, but it’s OK because you won’t be allowed to go anywhere anyway! Let freedom ring!

It makes you downright nostalgic for the good old days of 2023 when we were getting lectures on climate change from Taylor Swift.

But Clooney picking his party’s next candidate was the least weird thing that has happened in the last four weeks. Here’s the rundown: the aforementioned debate (not great), a guy laying on a roof with a sniper’s rifle and nobody doing anything (very, very bad), a bullet grazing former President Donald Trump’s ear (and a man losing his life protecting his family), President Biden dropping out of the race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris followed shortly by Harris taking the nomination. And in real life, I lost a friend and my cat died. Needless to say, I’ve had better summers.

You know it’s bad when your French friends are reaching out, feeling sorry for your country’s political absurdity. I never thought I’d see it. I’m dreading what August has in store.

It’s easy to feel like things are spinning out of control. And yet I’m reminded—as I think about my cat, my friend, and America’s political nightmare—of the words of Matthew 10:29–31: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

Because of this, and because of other passages like Romans 8:28 and Colossians 1:16–17, I’m reminded that Jesus makes and upholds everything in the universe … from things large and weighty, like our next president, to things that are absurd, like movie stars and their weird flexes. He even reigns over the sparrows and the life of my dear cat Jane, who brought a kind of sweet, innocent respite from the political roil (and every other imaginable kind of roil). I’m reminded that the Lord will provide every good thing, regardless of society seeming to go sidewise, the loss of loved ones, and our political system careening off the rails.

Isaiah 45:7 declares, “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.”

We pray for well-being but brace for calamity in a fallen world marred by sin (my own and others). Apart from Christ, we grasp at our own influence—at times flexing it and at times lamenting its limitations. But I’m comforted that the Lord does all these things, and because of this, I don’t have to fear August—or everything afterward.