I know that all of you sincerely appreciate a political post, because there's a severe lack of them floating around right now (yeah, just being a little sarcastic). But seriously though, I am going to touch on something else related to the election, besides the general rants and commentaries floating around the Internet. In this post, I want to bring up a dangerous mindset that I've seen brewing underneath the surface of our snappy political posts and polarized conversations about candidates. It's a problem that we must be aware of, as the body of Christ...
The problem that I want to bring to your attention is nothing new; in fact, Jesus himself dealt with it during his time here on earth. It was a problem of expectations. As many of the accounts in the Gospel discuss, Jesus's follower's didn't know or really seem to care about Jesus's true purpose of being here on earth; they expected Jesus to save them from the Roman rule in those days. They were so hyper-focused on their own expectations of how Jesus would save them that they became completely oblivious to his actual purpose, which was much bigger and much more wonderful than any of them ever imagined.
Our current mindset is strikingly similar to this. Just as Jesus's followers did thousands of years ago, we are falling into a problem of expectations- expecting God to do something in America and becoming uneasy and fearful when it doesn't happen quite the way we wanted.
Let me clarify something before I continue: I'm not saying that it's bad to be involved in political discourse. In fact, I voted in a primary election last week, for the first time in my life. I'm extremely proud to be part of this system. But, I personally think that many of us are taking this entire process beyond the normal amount of good citizenship/educated voting/healthy interest in how our own country is run, and into territory that could be dangerous for us, as Americans and as the body of Christ. Let me explain...
Okay so we, as Christians, love to talk about overcoming fear in our circles. There are a hundred bajillion verses on fear in the Bible. If you've been a church person for a while (as I have), you can probably generate two or three of these "anti-fear" verses right off the top of your head. But, here's the problem- the dangerous territory- as it relates to politics:
If someone comes up to any of us and discusses that they are faced with fear of thunderstorms or darkness or heights, we recite or paraphrase the concepts of an anti-fear verse to them. If someone comes up to any of us and discusses that they are faced with anxiety problems, we recite or paraphrase the concepts of an anti-fear verse to them. But, if someone comes up to any of us and discusses that they are afraid that [fill in the blank] will win the primaries and become the president, we respond by agreeing and bringing up our own fears or by refuting them. Since when did politics become an exception to the countless "do not be afraid"s that God has given us in his word?
If we sincerely begin to fear the "might"s and"will"s of our government's future, a few bad things happen.
1. We scare the people around us.
Fear spreads like a sickness. And when we know for a fact that perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18), why would we promote being afraid in any context?
2. We use up our energy in negative ways, overanalyzing and worrying rather than actually doing productive things for the kingdom of God.
Our time is limited. As Jesus said, "Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" (Matthew 6:27)
3.We start to doubt the success of our country and discount the future of America.
Let's all work together- young and old- to build a foundation of hope and excitement for the future, rather than fear or dismay.
Here's what I think we should do. Once we've done all we can, voted and supported who we want and moved to a point of just waiting for results, we need to just stop fearing the future of our government and realize that there's a God who is so much bigger than all of it, keeping it all under control.
Our country is not going under. And no, we don't all have to move to Canada if a bad candidate gets elected. What if we, like the people in Jesus's time, are anxiously waiting for God to do something in the government that he never intended to do and never will do? What if there's something bigger going on under the surface that reaches far beyond our nation and the current generations?
Here's the cliche part, but I think it really applies: let's stop worrying and start praying instead. Ask God to show you what's going on under the surface of our current circumstances. We, as the people of God and the ones saved by Jesus Christ, have more power and influence than any politician or government could ever have. Let's throw off our fears so we can truly lean into what we can do in Jesus's name, within the little bit of America situated right around each of us.
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