An election is upon us.
Here’s a couple of recent headlines:
“The Most Important Election of Our Lifetime”
“America is Hurtling Toward a Crossroads”
The hype sells. The hysteria gets attention and clicks, which happen to be one of the most precious commodities of today’s economy.
Reflecting on history can humble us. There have been some significant seasons in our nation’s history. Is the election of 2020 more important that the that of 1896 or 1932? Time will tell. We ought to be informed, engaged, and vote. Yes and amen. AND, while doing all those things, our main concern, as Christ’s people, is how we press forward in love of God and of our fellow human beings…yes…even those we disagree with.
My desire is for the Lord to root us and ground us as we walk through the deluge of headlines, coverage, speculation and tension that can easily throw us off-center.
The call is simple. Let’s keep our eyes, ears, hearts, and focus closely on Jesus and look for every opportunity to show His love to those around us. He is the only one still promising a light burden and easy yoke for any that come and follow Him. He is in control and worthy of our trust regardless of November’s outcome.
The world, our flesh, and the devil seek to distract us from that holy call, distort our vision of what’s important, and get us focused on anything but Jesus.
Let’s pursue Jesus as ultimate and most important. Let’s be sensitive to The Spirit of God as He moves us and works in and through us. Let’s go before the Father in humility and earnest prayer—for our community, our state, our country and its leaders.
How can we do that well in a hyper-charged time with tensions surrounding us?
Here’s a couple quotes, a prayer from St. Francis, and a passage from Hebrews that I’ve found helpful:
Wisdom on how followers of Jesus can vote well from from John Wesley:
“1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy
2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against, and
3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.”
On having a more Christian worldview relating to politics from Scott Sauls:
“Carefully read the 4 Gospels, Romans, and James.
Pray and dine with people whose politics differ from yours.
Name 1-2 weaknesses of your own party.
Name 1-2 strengths of the other party.
Vote your conscience.
Fight evil.
Advance good.”
A prayer from St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
Hebrews 12:1-3
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted”
For further reading and a song based on the above prayer see:
Political Riptides Rip Us Apart - By my friend Jim Mullins and Jackson Wu
Politics, Important, But Not Ultimate - By Jeremey Treat (the whole series on politics and the way of Jesus from Reality LA can be found here.)
