I have to admit that the upcoming election is a source of great . . . ummm . . . apathy for me. Not because I don't care, necessarily, but because I just really don't know what to look at, who to vote for . . . I just don't like anyone in this whole mess!!
To be honest, I used to be a right-wing, loud-mouthed republican. Obnoxiously so!! Not that being a republican is bad, I was just ignorantly so. But God has been broadening my view, and I am so blessed for it! Yet, I can't claim to be a Democrat, either . . . I really don't think I can claim to be anything right now, except a follower of Jesus, which (I feel) puts me in a very difficult spot.
See, here's my struggle. Jesus really wasn't political. Now, before I get a whole bunch of nasty, irate emails, let me explain how I feel. You see, Jesus did not seek power. Not at all! Not even in the slightest! In fact, He sought to be a servant. He sought the opposite of power. He was influential, because He invested in people, in individuals, and that's something entirely different. Some of the most influential people are NOT politicians. I think Jesus proved that influence and change comes from the bottom, not the top, as politicians like to think it does.
Here's my other "gripe" with politics, right now. It is my belief that the government is supposed to reflect the people. Am I correct in this?? Which is why our system works, if we all vote. But that just goes to prove that we cannot legislate morality. It can't be done!! Oh we try - especially as Christians, but you cannot tell someone what to believe, or how to feel on any given subject. We cannot make people live "moral lives." So, in fact, change - true change, from a Christian perspective - cannot come from the top. We cannot vote it in. A simple "change in power" is not the answer!! Change, in this country and across the globe, must come from the change of individual people. Which means you and I need to get off our keesters, and get out there and SHOW people what a Christian does - love, love, love. People are drawn to love. They are! Try it and watch what happens. And through that love they will be drawn to Jesus, the ONLY One who can truly change a person.
If we want change in America and beyond, people, it's got to seep up from the bottom, from people like you and me reaching out to those around us . . . then those politicians will never know what hit them!!
Thanks for listening to my ramblings today . . . really had to get that off my chest!! :)
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7 comments:
I totally agree that change is up to us individually and needs to come from the bottom. But it is also our responsibility as Chrisitans and as citizens, to vote for the person that seems the least evil and the most likely to have some kind of moral compass. If we don't step up and vote for the best available, then we are being apathetic and if evil takes office it's as much our fault as it is the ones who vote for that person. But yeah, politics suck!
Amen!
COMMENT FROM MY DEAR FRIEND, KAY MANWARING:
Why are we so disillusioned when it comes to politics? What happened to America while Americans were enjoying the 'good life'?
Greed!!!
CEO's of insurance companies making $53.4 million a year and canceling the insurance of a woman with cancer or a child with mental disorders.
Contractors building a virtual fence on the border of our country that is not even to specs and charging $20 million for it.
Homeland Security folks not even inspecting it, but paying for it and now planning to double the cost to fix it.
Oil companies taking profits of millions and millions of dollars 'for the stockholders' when many families cannot afford to drive to work.
Contractors overcharging millions for labor and materials because they can get by with it in time of war.
Our State Dept. letting them get by with it.
Billions of dollars going unaccounted for in the same time of war. No one held accountable.
Folks purchasing $400,000 homes when they could only afford a $200,000 home. The same and others purchasing gas guzzlers to keep up the appearance of 'having it all'.
Mortgage companies allowing and even encouraging it by trick financing schemes.
U.S. companies sending jobs overseas because of cheap labor and doubling the cost of the product.
Those products coming back to kill us via lead in children's toys and poison in medications.
The government no longer on a gold standard, so that our dollar is worth less than the paper to print it.
Continuing to make pennies when it costs 1.5 cents to do so.
Politicians being caught up in all the above in order to take trips on fancy planes to fancy places, and to line their personal pocketbooks.
I think we need a President that thinks like the new Governor of Alaska who came into office, according to Jerry McBeath, "...by taking the ethical high road by saying there will be no secret deals". She is taking the oil companies to task in Alaska and I pray that she is successful in her endeavor.
I could go on and on and on and on. But until each and every individual American is sick of the 'good life' we are living and the dread we will be leaving to our children and grandchildren; until integrity comes back into play for us and for our leaders, we are dead in the water.....adrift on a sea of complacency and each of us is as guilty as the next.
You didn't ask for it - but there is my opinion of the day.
In prayer daily for all of us, Kay
Stacey - I agree whole-hearedly! We are responsible for choosing the one we think is "best." That's why I'm so upset by this . . . I feel like I need to vote, yet neither side seems moral or good to me. I mean, the "obvious" choice is republican, because they've "taken a stand" on the "moral issues." But when I look at the life of Jesus, and see what He said was important (taking care of the poor, weak, needy), it seems the Democrats are more "righteous." But there are so many ways they, too, fall short!
I can see how both sides are DRIVEN by money (like Kay said) - by oil and money and power . . . and again, that was not the focus of Jesus' life.
So, I guess I am feeling like there is no "better" choice . . . the better choice, for me I guess, is to continue serving Christ, seeking to make a difference for Him. All in the hopes that I can be an influence for change in this country, despite all the politics! :)
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Hey Andrea. You wrote:
But that just goes to prove that we cannot legislate morality. It can't be done!! Oh we try - especially as Christians, but you cannot tell someone what to believe, or how to feel on any given subject.
There are all sorts of laws that legislate morality. Laws against theft,murder, discrimination.The idea isn't to change someone's mind about something, but to have order and to promote what is good and right. I'm pretty sure that as a Christian who values the sanctity of life, you would love to see abortion outlawed, right? Not because you think it would fix the problem in everyone's hearts, but that it would save innocent babies from being killed.
One other thing I think we need to remember. While it is true, Jesus was not a political leader by any means, His reason was neither to fix society in any way. He came to seek and save that which was http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2019:10&version=49lost ; To save the sinner from Hell. That's pretty much it.
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