Election Results and the Christian

I've been pretty quiet here all through the U.S. election season. This blog isn't intended as a place for me to espouse or even share my political views; it's not a politics blog and I don't want it to turn into one, and that's been a big part of what's been on my mind. Certainly it is part of my "life" as a "Christian" (see the blog's title!) but I just don't want to go there on this platform... because I don't think that you should use your Christianity as the reason for your politics. I don't mean by that that you shouldn't vote for the person who you believe will provide the most Godly leadership out of all of the candidates, no matter what the office, but I don't think that you should hang your Christianity on your political party. Politics by its nature is divisive, but Jesus by His nature seeks to draw everyone to Himself. If I say "I'm a Republican because I'm a Christian," what are people who are not Christians but who have strong opinions which contradict the Republican platform supposed to think? That they aren't allowed in the "Christian" club because they are members of the "Democrat" club? I just don't think that's a good path to follow. Jesus loves and accepts political liberals, moderates, conservatives, and whatever - all the same - and does not require them to change their political ideas except in any areas that contradict God's Word. And those ways are often fewer than we think.

Anyway, now that the elections are over, I do have a few thoughts to share... with my Christian friends, mostly. The ones who wanted Mitt Romney to win. I will start with full disclosure: I didn't want President Obama to win again. I don't think he's done the job that needed to be done, and I wanted to give the other guy a crack at it. That said, I have something to say to my Christian friends who agree with me on that.

My message to my Christian friends is this: RELAX.

Let's back up for a second. I live in Oklahoma, which is as red of a state as you are going to find. I grew up in Louisiana and Texas, which are also very red Southern states. And most of my friends are thoroughly Republican Christians. Overall I think they (we?) are pretty disappointed that Obama won a second term. But I don't believe that a second four years for a President who may have failed to accomplish what needed to be accomplished is the end of the world for Christianity or Christians, or even the end of the United States of America. I think God is present in America today the same as He was present yesterday, in the hearts and lives of His people.

I'm going to take the devil's advocate for a moment and argue from the assumption that Obama is the worst of what conspiracy theorists and wild-eyed alarmists think he is: evil incarnate, bent on ruining this country by turning it into something it has never been before and should never be, and lacking the common sense to do even the simplest things for the actual good of the country. (This is not my own view; I don't think the President is an evil man. But let's assume for the moment that he is.) What precedents do we have in the Word of God for a ruler like that?

Let's think about the life of Joseph. Joseph was sold into slavery into the land of a pagan king. Once he was there, God brought Joseph such success that not only did he prosper personally, but he brought his whole extended family in to enjoy the prosperity, and ultimately that family grew so large that 400+ years later, a future pagan king felt threatened by their presence. Now THAT is prosperity under an unrighteous ruler.

What about Daniel? He was a prisoner of war, brought into the court of yet another pagan king who not only tried to get him to do things that contradicted his religious convictions, but after Daniel and his friends proved their value to the king and became trusted advisors, the king stupidly and more than once was talked into executing them (God saved them each time, Daniel from the lions and his three friends from death by burning in a furnace). Not only was Daniel made a top advisor to that king, but he outlived two or three more kings, becoming a top adviser in turn to each of them. How's THAT for a lifetime of prospering under unrighteous leadership?

And let's take Esther. Forced to marry the king and become the queen (forced to become the queen?) she was able to save her whole people group when she exposed a situation that the king was stupid enough to let his adviser talk him into, condemning to death not only her, but a man who had just a few days earlier saved the king's life. A pagan king? Yes. Unrighteous? Yes (forcing women to marry you is not a righteous act). Dumb? Yes (not thinking through policies that are presented by your advisers is dumb leadership). Did Esther and the people of God survive and prosper?

Yes they did.

Even Jesus Himself came into the world during the reign of a pagan oppressor (Rome), but Jesus did not seek to correct any of the political problems of His day. Our situation is a bit different in the 21st century United States, of course, and we have the privilege/right/responsibility to take part in the political process by the mechanisms the Constitution gives us. But my point is that God does not always see fit to immediately remove rulers who are not Godly or even not that smart. In the end, the only thing in the Bible that ever caused God's people to ultimately not prosper is not their leadership: it is their own unrighteousness. God's people failed to prosper not when their leaders were bad, but when they chose not to maintain their own relationship with God.*

Now, let's get back to reality. President Obama may be a bad President. Or, he may be a good President. We may, in future years, reap benefits as a nation from the work he's done for the past four years and the work he will do in the next four, or we may suffer the consequences. Sometimes historical hindsight reveals a forest we were unable to see for the trees at the time. But as individual children of God, we can trust that He will make all things, even President Obama, work together for our good.  God's power is greater than the power of any other ruler, and if you don't agree with that statement, perhaps you're not thinking of the same god I'm thinking of. The Kingdom of God is not the United States of America; the Kingdom of God exists within His people. And God will take care of His people. We will not be destroyed.

So quit the pouting. It's all going to be okay. :)



Still freaking out a little bit? Take a look at this blog post which a friend of mine linked to on Facebook yesterday.

Don't miss Part 2 and Part 3 of this impromptu series!

All Idea, No Time!

I sometimes use a service called Evernote. Evernote is kind of like a place to store things that are in your brain but you're afraid they might fall out; if you can imagine a folder on your computer containing as many documents as you could possibly want, all indexed and searchable and at your fingertips from any computer (or your cell phone, or whatever), that's Evernote. In Evernote, I have a folder full of ideas for this blog. There are easily the seeds of 20 blog entries in there! Why are they in Evernote and not on this blog? There are a lot of answers to that question, but I'll give you just one right now.

Yesterday I left work at 5pm, stopped briefly at home to pick up my 10-year-old son, and then went straight to church, put on a dress, and sat in the dark talking to little kids. Well... OK, that's not exactly the WHOLE story. My church is having Vacation Bible School this week, and my wife and I are volunteering to work with the kids. The VBS is Egypt-themed (you can see some of the setup in my photo set from the setup day) Last night I spent most of the time playing Joseph in jail. The kids came in with their "Egyptian families" (other children, and some adult volunteers) and I, as Joseph, told them the story of my life, starting with "Back in Canaan where I used to live, I have eleven brothers..." and ending with "One of the prisoners had a strange dream, and I told him it meant he would get out of prison, and I asked him to mention me to Pharaoh, but I think he forgot about me!" I'm not sure I was the most convincing or articulate Joseph in the history of theater, but the children seemed to respond well to what was going on, and I never completely lost my place, so that was good!

When they asked me if I would "be Joseph" the first night of VBS (they have another volunteer for the other nights), I said, "Sure!" I always like to help out where I can. But when I started digging into the script, I started to realize how much of an impact it could have on a child if he was experiencing something that was confusing or scary or difficult for him or her. I particularly wanted to make sure I cleraly communicated the message in this one paragraph near the end of the night's lines for Joseph, who had been demonstrating throughout his story that even if you cover a light with a basket, the light is still shining:

"I've had hard times, times I didn't know what would happen next. But I do know that no matter what, God gives us hope. Even when things seem sad or scary or hard, He's still with us. It's kind of like these lights that shine in the dark. Just like the light, God is always there - in dark or hard times, and in good times."

Wow.

Children remember VBS. Children give their lives to Christ at VBS. I hope I did a good enough job last night that today, something I said comes back to the memory of a little boy or little girl, and helps him or her react with Godly wisdom to a situation that they would ordinarily react to in a different way. That would make it worth every second of the time I spent working on memorizing that script!

So anyway, that's why I wasn't blogging last night. There are other reasons I don't blog other nights... one night I got down the Candy Land game and played it with my 2-year-old girl. Another night I played some Super Monkey Ball with the 10-year-old. Sunday evening I was eating Taco Salad across from the beautiful lady who, for some reason, many years ago agreed to become my wife. Tonight I won't be blogging; I'll be at church. VBS starts back up Thursday and ends Friday. On Saturday I'll be... but you get the idea.

I guess I'm a busy guy. The Word says that if you are busy with the things of God, though, that's a good thing! As long as you rest when appropriate and don't burn yourself out, a busy life is God's gift to us.

But it doesn't leave much time for translating those vague thoughts in Evernote into coherent blog entries. Some of them will probably never be blog entries, because at this point I've forgotten what they were supposed to mean! But I pray that the ones that matter eventually make it out of my heart and onto your screen and take you somewhere with God that you wouldn't have gone otherwise.

That said... new blog entry tomorrow. Stay tuned! :)