Leaving a house packed with high school students last night I remember driving with a sick feeling in my stomach. This whole election had me out of sorts not because I feared the results but because I grieved what I saw in the families and students God has entrusted me with. Speech filled with hatred, slogans which equate a man with being the solution to problems rooted in the fallenness of man. As I woke this morning, my wife communicated my heavy thoughts, and I wanted to write this more as a reminder to myself and my family than as a soapbox.
Remember whose Kingdom I am a part of. And whose greatness is beyond compare.
Make America Great Again. I think this bothers me so much because while my friends who are of an age to comprehend do understand the divide – I remember growing up where I thought the solution was to vote someone into the spot of power. But I think where we lose sight is we communicate not that we are somehow partakers in the mission of God to redeem and restore all things but that if our vote doesn’t count then everything is lost.
As a student I believed that if X politician wasn’t elected than that was it. Whether intentional or not – the adults in my life did not communicate the sovereignty of God [Isaiah 40:22-23], that the end goal was not America but Jesus – and that the results of an election are not doom [John 18:36, Hebrews 12:28-29]
Every life is sacred.
I know many would say “well Trump because abortion.” Okay. But let your voice be loud for the refugee. For the gay. For the black, the white, the straight, the obese, the anorexic, the democrat, the republican, the muslim, the jehovah’s witness. Or do we forget that God created all in His image [Genesis 1:27] that we are fearfully and wonderfully made [Psalm 139:13-16] that God’s heart is for the widow, orphan, foreigner [Zechariah 7:9-10, James 1:27, Psalm 146:9, Psalm 82:3]
Is my view of God too small?
What grieves me so much is the hate I see fueled over social media, via text messages, in jokes. I see students who have such a passion for these “poor, third world countries” and yet scoff and jeer at those right around them. Growing up I had this skewed view of God, of His work in redeeming and re-creating those around me.
I cared more about my comfort than about the Good News that Jesus came, walked among us, living a sinless life, died a brutal death on the cross not just for my sins but for the sin of every human to every walk the earth. [Ephesians 2:1-10, John 3:16-21, Romans 3:23-24, Romans 6:23]
This means: white, republican, black, muslim, gay, straight, religious know it all, lesbian, transgender, jew, gentile, murderer, adulterer, the kid addicted to porn, the girl who cuts herself, the kid who attempts suicide, the prideful who laughs at their co-workers, the parent who is content to sit in their ABF and be pissed at why their church talks about Jesus all the time, and every. single. other. person.
Do I believe that Jesus is the answer?
Or is my kingdom here?
Rejoice you have freedom. But do you praise God in freedom and without? [Acts 16:16-40, Daniel 6] Do you make disciples in your Judea, Samaria or just the ends of the earth? [Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8] Does my life look more and more like Jesus [2 Corinthians 5:17, Titus 2:11-12]? Does my life display more and more of the fruit of the Spirit or do I find myself making excuses that God just didn’t make me a ____________ person? [Galatians 5:16-26]
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. – Psalm 139:23-24