Important Election Reminder: God’s Got This

Who needs this reminder? Probably everybody.

Almost everyone I know is walking around nervous, fearful, wringing their hands, checking the polls every five minutes, and just generally concerned about the upcoming election. My personal opinion is that one side of the country actually represents an existential threat to democracy. If you read my blog, it should be entirely obvious who I am voting for. We could be on the brink of a fascist ascendancy in the most powerful nation on the planet. It is critically consequential that you vote in the coming two weeks. Lives and our civil rights are literally at stake. My one single vote among millions can feel so small — and Colorado’s 10 measly electoral votes are probably safely blue.

Ugh.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I want you to take a deep breath. Nothing that is decided in this election has any effect whatsoever on God’s sovereignty.

Yes. It is absolutely our Christian responsibility to do our best to live by Jesus’ command to love each other, love God, welcome the stranger, care for the poor and most of all forgive each other. And these core Christian values should be expressed in your vote. But let me assure you if you are feeling fearful, no matter what happens, God is in control. This one election is but a tiny speck on the calendar of human history. Human history itself is a pale parody of the kingdom of God.

Ultimately, your life needs to be rooted in Christ, not in any political ideology. You serve love not power. Faith is about trusting God when the entire world tells you God is untrustworthy. I cannot blame my atheist friends for being unwilling to take that leap. But as one already falling into the chasm of faith, I’m far beyond making a decision against faith. Nervous hand-wringing is for the atheists not the Jesus followers.

Remember that our savior was born into the Roman Empire, one of the most oppressive tyrannies ever recorded. His words and mission ushered in a different kind of kingdom. His resurrection proved that Rome had no power over us.

Rome can kill you; God will raise you.

The kingdom of God is not defined by politics, geographical boundaries, rivers nor roads. The kingdom is defined by love, justice, mercy, humility, and imitating Christ. Where you see those lines in action, you are living in the kingdom of God. Where those lines are not in action, you need to draw them yourself. In the United States, you get to vote at the ballot. In the kingdom of God, you vote with your hands and your heart. Your heart-vote actually extends boundaries further than you ever could politically because God’s love and justice cannot be bound.

Does half the country disagree with you? Do half of your Christian sisters and brothers disagree with you? If you believe the polls, it seems they do. That just means there’s more work to be done. Sometimes the good guys lose to remind us how much of that work still needs to happen. I wish that work had already been done and I could tell you I’m not gripped by fear. But here we are. Let this moment awaken your prophetic imagination. What will you do to encircle more people in God’s kingdom regardless of the outcome of the next election?

Modern Christians are far from the first Jesus followers to confuse politics with the kingdom of God.

Matthew 16:23

But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Sometimes we can change society by elevating society through our political actions. Society can also be transformed from the inside out through repentance, prayer, seeking union with God and most of all practicing welcome, forgiveness and mercy. If you are fearful, that is God’s shouting reminder to return your focus to God. Polls can never comfort you because they are designed to collect anxious clicks. Political candidates cannot comfort you because your vote is more important to them than your faith. Take your fear directly to Jesus, not to Fox News nor MSNBC. You are citizens of a different kingdom, believe it and live it.

Yes, vote like democracy depends on it, because it does. But also raise your prophetic voice to those around you. God’s kingdom and God’s work is so much bigger than this election.

Jesus points to a kingdom that is far beyond anything we experience through politics. Humans have done the worst possible things to each other; they will continue to do so in the future. Sometimes we can turn that around with the vote. Sometime we cannot.

Your single vote among millions can seem so small, but Jesus outlined a different method for you to make a difference:

• Love God (God doesn’t want your vote or even your worship, They want your love)
• Love your neighbor (and your neighbor doesn’t vote the way you do and that’s OK, love them harder)
• Forgive everyone abundantly, never throwing stones, never returning evil for evil (you can break the cycle of violence and fear, tribalism and tyranny, you can do it right now, when it next happens to you it can stop at your feet)
• Treat others as you want to be treated (unless you love Christmas fruitcake, you can keep that mess to yourself)
• Feed the hungry (Cf., fruitcake)
• Visit and comfort the imprisoned (the literally and spiritually imprisoned)
• Clothe the naked (and none of our emperors wear clothes)
• House the homeless (literally of course, but thanks to overheated rhetoric many around us lack an ideological home, or live unchurched)
• Welcome the foreigner and the stranger (God’s Kingdom has no boundaries so do not dare to supersede God’s will for humanity with your own prejudice)
• Care for the sick (literally and spiritually sick, and we’re all feeling a little spiritually sick right now)
• Love each other as He loves us (this one seems impossible, but we all need some stretch goals)