Politics

This year is different. For the first time in my life I really feel excited and passionate about an election. I made it a priority to watch the first presidential debate, as well as the vice-presidential debate last night. This is something I've not done before. Four years ago I would have changed the channel when I turned on NBC expecting The Office, only to find "boring news."

Perhaps this is the case because this year I am different, as are those around me. Four years ago my little brother wasn't driving trucks for the National Guard in Iraq. Four years ago I was certain homosexuality and abortion were the two most decisive issues in my political decision making process. Four years ago I was a student, and really couldn't care less about our nation's economy as I lived in my college bubble taking loans to fund my education. Four years ago I wasn't a youth pastor working in the lives of students wanting to know how Christians should act regarding the war, gay marriage, immigration, etc.

Yeah, this year I am different.

I think the thing that is most different however, is my idea of who God is and what his will for his creation looks like.

These past four years I’ve become more convinced that God is less concerned about rising oil prices and more concerned about young Iraqi and American, men and women, killing each other.

These past four years I’ve become more convinced that God is less concerned about a person’s sexual orientation, and more about making sure the rest of us love that person unconditionally and without limit, as Christ loves the Church.

These past four years I’ve become more convinced that America hasn’t the faintest clue what humility is. I wonder what it would be like to not be the first to speak (praise or condemnation), but to wait and listen to the ideas of those around us instead of assuming our answer is the only correct one.

These past four years I’ve become more convinced that forgiveness is a lost art. It’s suitable for children learning to play well with others and for “churchy people” but too old fashioned or illogical to ever factor into national security or foreign relations.

So what to do? I have no answers. I guess I’m not really sure if any of the candidates do either. I seem to find what I think are biblical ideals in each candidate. The thing is, I also find things I feel are unbiblical.

So where do I go from there? I pray. And I vote. I pray that God would be glorified regardless of who sits on the earthly throne at the White House. And I pray that God would draw the heart our our president closer and closer to Himself. And then I vote. I vote for the person whom I believe reflects the most Christlike world view, even if that candidate isn’t aware that is what he’s doing.

Yeah, this year is different. But so is the world. And its my hope that this next year will be even more different, if only because of a uniquely God shaped imprint upon it.

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers, Part II

A pastor of a church in Jonesville, S.C. is making a little stir with the message he chose to put on the church's sign. No, he didn't use "God Answers Knee-Mail, "Seven Days Without Prayer Makes One Weak" or even "Forbidden Fruit Creates Many Jams." However any of those may have been better than the "Obama, Osama, humm are they brothers?" that he decided to go with.

Pastor Roger Byrd said that the message wasn't meant to be racial or political. (Humm, indeed)

"It's simply to cause people to realize and to see what possibly could happen if we were to get someone in there that does not believe in Jesus Christ," he said.

Just wonderful Pastor Byrd. Thanks for the reminder. Because we all know how well Christians fair in office (ex: Presidents Nixon (Quaker), G.W. Bush (Methodist)) and how poorly those without Christ do (Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson-all known as Deists).

The church apparently is made of 70 members and while I realize that their 70 votes may or may not have a dramatic impact on the upcoming elections, I think the bigger issue is that this 70 member church is the church making news right now. It's the church non-religious people are thinking about and allowing to shape their own opinions about who the body of Christ really is.

I suppose this is just another reminder to me about the importance of using the pulpit to preach the love of Jesus Christ and not spreading my own views under the guise of what true Christian living looks like.