And Another Thing.....

One more quasi-political post and I’m done. Probably done, anyway.

Lest anyone think from my last post that I only think Barak Obama supporters are creepy, I want to say here that I’m just as creeped out by people who want to place some kind of mantle on McCain-Palin, too. It bothers me that we evangelicals for so long in America have tended to place way too much hope in elections. The morning after the last midterm elections, I happened to be in the car and had the radio tuned to the Christian station and a popular nationally known broadcast show was on and the hosts were bemoaning and bewailing the fact that the Republicans had done so poorly. The way they were carrying on, I thought to myself, “Whoa, guys! Is God still on the throne or what? Who are we trusting here, anyway?”

Here’s my little opinion piece on this and then I’ll just go back to my regular blogging, because I really don’t intend to get much into politics on this blog. I'll leave that for people who are more qualified than I at that kind of thing. I think that as Christians we are to be salt and light in the world. We ought to be good citizens, exercise the right to vote, make wise voting choices, run for office if we believe God is calling and equipping us to do so, be the best workers we can be in whatever vocation God has us in, be the best wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, churchmembers, neighbors, whatever roles God calls us to. We ought to do all that we do to the glory of God. We ought to be a seasoning influence on our neighborhoods and culture and help to preserve it from evil. We ought to speak up and make a difference when we can.

Having said all that, however, we must never lose sight of our real calling and our real hope. When Jesus ascended into Heaven, He charged His followers to make disciples, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is our business as Christians. He did not tell us to hope in government to solve all of our problems. He did not tell us to get so enmeshed in economic systems and social issues that we neglect our real calling to make disciples of Jesus Christ. He inspired godly men to write that we are to pray for our officials, but no where do I see that we are to so marry ourselves to any political party that we wail and moan and carry on the day after an election or that we see any man (or woman, for that matter) as our great hope.

God will not share His glory with any other. Sure I think this upcoming election is important. Certainly. I absolutely believe we should prayerfully consider how we vote. But, we need to be very careful not to put our hope in any party, any candidate, any ticket and trust in Christ alone. He is sovereign. Whoever is elected this November, God is in control of that. He has His purpose in it, and we will do well to pray for our leaders and pray for mercy for our country.

When will we ever learn to quit worshiping at the altar of political candidates and the political process? To give you my honest, deep down opinion, I'm wondering if maybe we're getting just what we deserve because we've insisted on trusting in politicians and in marrying ourselves to any political party and just emoting all over the place and trusting too much in temporal government.

I hate election years.

I'll be holding my nose and voting this time around.