Monument Park, Budapest, Hungary

 

Many of you were not around when the Berlin Wall came down.  Actually, many of you have no idea what the Berlin Wall was all about!  In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev used the Russian term glasnost, which meant openness.  He wanted to promote transparency in government.  And that was a dangerous decision in a country that had been under complete control for seventy years.  This led to perestroika, which meant restructuring.  Gorbachev wanted to bring the Soviet Union up to speed with the western economies.  But Russia was so far behind that this relaxing of control led to the complete collapse of the communist regimes.  In the fall of 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and East and West Germany were reunited.  One after another, the communist bloc countries collapsed.  I traveled to Romania in 1990 only eight months after Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown and executed.  In Budapest Hungary, the communist era statues were torn down and dragged off to an empty field outside of the city.  When tourists sought out the field, the Hungarians realized an opportunity.  They stood the statues up, built Monument Park, and charged admission to see the dishonored statues.  To me, it was instructive to see these likenesses of former world leaders who were now gone.  Hey, God is in control, and the good Lord lifts up whom He will and pulls down whom He will.  David said in Proverbs 21:1, “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”  You may stand up against God … but you will be crushed.  Or you can submit to God, and you will be blessed.  Your choice determines your destiny.