Leadership

It seems like we are thick in the political season early this cycle.  Emotions are running high and we still have three months to go.  It seems that most people have their mind up and the logic goes like this, "I know that my candidate isn't perfect, they have flaws and I'm not happy about it, but the other is so so bad that they may very well destroy the country." The funny thing is that people have come to this conclusion from both sides.  No matter who you are planning to vote for.

I sometimes think that we expect too much out of our politicians.  We seem to want transformational leaders who will guide the country.  We want to be motivated, but we would probably be better served by someone who will make the trains run on time.  But you never know.  In the presidential election of 2000 we never thought that we were selecting the person to lead us through 9/11 and into decades of war.  We were arguing about how to spend the budget surplus.

And there is the decision.  There is a balance between managing the affairs of the day and having the temperament to handle the big issues that inevitably arise.

And so we vote.

Not that we do a good job of it.  The image of a corrupt politician is almost cliche.  It seems like there is always one politician or another in trouble for illegal activities.  In Illinois, four of the past seven governors have gone to prison.  And that is just the illegal stuff.  There are plenty of gray areas.  Like passing a bill that helps a particular industry then leaving office and taking a high paying job working for one of those companies.  It's not illegal, but it feels dishonest.

The thing is that all of these politician, the ones who go to jail, the ones who don;t get caught, the ones that use their influence for personal gain were elected by a majority of voters.  I do believe that most politicians are in office to serve their community and work hard to represent us well.  But the point is that we as voters are not that good at telling the good from the bad.

  

Probably we all need to take a deep breath and relax a bit.  No matter how bad our choices are, our country is pretty resilient  and is likely to come through ok.  And as I type that last statement, I am asking myself if I really believe it.  Based on the election coverage in the media it is easy to think otherwise.

As Christians we need to remember that we aren't electing a prophet or a spiritual leader.  We have one already.  We aren't electing a savior or a redeemer.  We have one already.  As a Christian I know that God is always with me.  God is always on my side.  God has not sold out to special interests.  God does not need to get reelected.  And no matter who gets elected, God will lead us through if we put our trust in him.

Watch this video from Pastor Chris.

I think that Christians should vote and we should take our choices seriously, but we should remember that God is our true leader no matter who gets the most votes from the Electoral College.