The election of a new president this past November was the culmination of what seemed like an eternity of 24/7 coverage and analysis. I'll admit to being a bit of a political junkie. There is a certain facination factor I have with the political process. But the more years I live, the less invested I become. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad to live in a country where I have the right to vote and I don't live in fear of the government or lawlessness. However, my hope does not rest in the continuation of this state nor in the men and women who govern it. Furthermore, my beliefs are not represented by a polarized party platform that is constructed to gain votes and make catchy bumper stickers (nor is my faith able to be reduced to a bumper sticker slogan, but more on that another day). Therefore I am not willing to demonize people who don't vote the way I do, to deify those I do vote for, or to invest my life in a process that does either. I tire of debating talking points everyone has heard and no one knows for sure are valid. I tire of hearing alarmist statements that if candidate X gets elected then the country is going to fall apart. I tire of the condecention and the hate and the excess and the generic promises that all candidates make and everyone knows they can't keep. Most of all I tire of a culture that tries to adapt and warp Christianity to support a candidate or party. In the process we have lost the idea that God is completely sovereign and will put in office who He has designed to be there (Daniel 2:20-21, Romans 13:1-7), and replaced it with the foolish idea that we hold the power and fate over our own lives (Jeremiah 10:23-24, Proverbs 20:24). Do not read more into my statement than what I'm saying. I do not pretend to know why God puts individuals into certain offices at certain times, nor am I claiming that everything an individual does in office is right by some divine mandate. I only claim that it is God and God alone who controls the universe and grants power to individuals, and I trust in Him that He knows what He is doing. Therefore "... my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right" (Abraham Lincoln). For my part as a Christian, I wish to dispense with the world's near sighted view of politics for salvation and point to the One who truly brings it. Let us realize our position before God as Job did and humble ourselves in deference to God. For those who wish to have a long theological debate about predestination and free will here, I regret that I have neither time and space nor knowledge to delve into that now. Perhaps at a later time or place. For now, know my position to be this: God has granted us free will that is subject in all aspects to His supreme free will. Perhaps this is insufficient for some, however it is all I can in confidence proclaim based on what has been revealed to me through the reading and preaching of Scripture.
The story in Exodus of the plagues brought down on Egypt and the Lord's deliverance of the Israelites, I think, explains my position on the relationship between our will and God's will and solidifies for me the inevitability of God. Over and over God tells Moses how things are going to go down. In Exodus 10:1-2 God makes it perfectly clear who is in charge. God hardens Pharaoh's heart so that God can bring the noise so that the Israelites can tell their children and their children's children about how awesome God is. God decides when and how the plagues come and go. God gives the orders and events play out exactly how God set them out. This idea is revisited in Romans 9:14-24. These versus really shake my world. For many thousands of years men have tried to explain our will and God's will and the relationship between the two. The only thing I know for sure is that God is awesome and I am not. Go back and read those versus from Romans and let them sink in. What does that mean for your life, how you make decisions, what's important? Those are just the starter questions. Let us spend our time and energy humbly pursuing God and not chasing after the wind.
Soli Deo Gloria
