All hail the chief!

Congratulations to President Barack Obama on this historic day.

The blogosphere is buzzing with both positive and negative reviews of the President's inauguration speech. I myself found the speech inspiring and a necessary reminder that government can only do so much to solve the many serious issues we're facing as a country.

• As the son of immigrants, I identify deeply with the ideas of personal responsibility, working hard, and not expecting the (union, company, government, party) to take care of all our problems.
• As a Christian, I believe that while God can work through governments to help carry out his purposes, God also expects us to assume personal responsibility in helping the less fortunate.
  

Two other quick items about the inauguration speech.

First, courtesy of a high school friend (thanks Cecilia!) who shared this link on Facebook, here is an interesting word cloud visualization of the President's address. Check out this link to see similar visualizations of some former presidents' speeches.

Second, some of you may be curious about the Bible reference in the President's inaugural speech. President Obama said, "We remain a young nation, but in the words of scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things."

This reference comes from 1 Corinthians 13, a letter Paul wrote to the church at Corinth which includes the so-called "love chapter" which is commonly used in weddings. Many people are familiar with its proclamations about the nature of love from this letter: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."

Less well known is Paul's description of what we'll know when we meet God in person. The text reads:

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (Emphasis mine.)

Most Christians understand this verse to mean that we will know things when we meet God in heaven that we don't know -- or only partly understand -- today.

Just as we look back with some chagrin at the things we thought we knew as kids ("when I'm a parent, I'm never going to yell at my kids"), we'll also get a good chuckle about the things we thought we knew here on earth once we're seeing things from the vantage point of heaven.

As I read it, President Obama used this verse in his speech as an exhortation to get beyond partisan bickering -- what he calls "the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics."

To which I say, amen. Let's get to work.

And thank you President Obama, for the reminder that each one of us needs to part of the solution.