Election: How should we respond?

Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me. - John 14:1

What was I thinking?
I'm pretty much a product of my upbringing - brought up in a Christian home, going to church every Sunday, taught to respect my parents, be polite to others, and stand up for good. Even in a state that is as liberal as any part of our country can get, I realized the truth and stability behind conservative values, principles, and traditions. I spent a large majority of my teenage years in a country under the reassuring leadership of Presidents Ronald Reagan. I have vivid memories of his speeches, how he seemed to look me directly in the eye from his desk and tell things like they were, good or bad, yet always seemed to know all was going to be right. This is the country in which I grew up.. it's no longer the country in which I live.

Did I really expect things to remain the same?

If you ask me, I'd tell you bluntly that I'm very conservative. I would likely be unregistered to a party except that the Republicans, in which the last vestiges of conservatism still whisper weakly from within, have given me some flickering hope that there are still some principled people left in the world - but barely. The Democratic party as a whole I've all but given up for lost politically... in the last ten years they've morphed from a party of Clintonian compromise to one of full-on, ends-justify-means, brutal partisanship, a party with which I disagree largely in principles.... and it's become more than that. It's stoked a political battle that's got my blood boiling in anger and disillusion, as they've turned from a party that gave lip service to Christian values to one of full-on hostility toward Christianity and any semblance of absolutes in morality or ethical judgment.

So how could I deal with the other side winning on November 6th? These people were at odds with seemingly every Biblical principle learned in my lifetime. Why hasn't America come to its senses after four years of an administration that turned its nose on civility and honesty, with the economy going down the toilet, crises left festering across the globe, and people in so much despair? I truly thought that the majority would do the right thing and disregard the smears against someone who spend the better part of his life giving of himself to people.... how could I be so wrong?

And then, last week, I happened to read through Matthew 10. Jesus was commissioning his disciples, and gave them instructions to go out into the world and continue what he started.

"Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues. 
"You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me. When you are arrested, don't worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking - it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 
"A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one town, flee to the next. I tell you the truth, the Son of Man will return before you have reached all the towns of Israel.
"Students are not greater than their teacher, and slaves are not greater than their master. Students are to be like their teacher, and slaves are to be like their master. And since I, the master of the household, have been called the prince of demons, the members of my household will be called by even worse names!
"But don't be afraid of those who threaten you. For the time is coming when everything that is covered will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. What I tell you now in the darkness, shout abroad when daybreak comes. What I whisper in your ear, shout from the housetops for all to hear!
"Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

There is much more to this chapter than just this section; but for now we'll look at what Jesus instructs his disciples and how this applies to us as Christians as we face the world. First ,we need to realize a few things that have been true since long before our time - indeed, long before the time of the Gospels:

1. Man cannot be trusted to do the right thing by himself.  In the beginning of the formation of this country, our Founding Fathers realized that to succeed as a nation, we had to establish a framework based on timeless truths, and that God (and even Deists like Franklin and Jefferson realized this) was the ultimate source of those truths through his Word, the Bible. However, outside that truth, man left to his own devices seeks his own purposes above all, particularly when in power. Lord Acton in 1887 coined the famous phrase: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
2. History is a better judge of man's tendency to do wrong than we sometimes care to believe. The Old Testament is full of examples - almost in its entirely - of man's failure. God is gracious! That must certainly be believed when one reads through the Old Testament to see how many times, over and over, He grants Israel chance after chance to follow Him and redeem themselves.... but it only shows, in cyclical fashion, that even after a running start, Israel falls into decay and ends up invoking God's wrath and the direct consequences of their actions. Yet in their deep despair, God hears their cry and delivers them again and again, knowing that they're about to repeat their failure yet again in the years to come. 
3. Earthly government can never be counted on to solve man's primary problem. After years of wandering around in the desert, looking at other nations that were so well organized (but pagan), the Israelites decided one day that they, too, wanted a king, like everyone else. During the time of the Judges they had been beaten down time and time again by these outside oppressors, and they probably figured that they would stand a chance if they had strong human leadership like these other nations, that they would stand a chance. While they may have thought this was a great idea, they didn't realize that by doing so they were supplanting the leadership of God. When Samuel was confronted with this, he warned the people that they would be subject to the whims of a king, however corrupt, and that the further out of the picture they wanted God, the less willing He was to help them when they reaped the consequences of their selfish desires. They were granted a king; and even though they had a couple of God-fearing rulers on the throne, the nation of Israel split in two and the kings that were to follow became increasingly corrupt and evil until, over time, God's grace reached a limit once again and the consequences of Israel's actions led them into captivity.
4. We shouldn't expect any different this day and age. You'd think we'd have learned by now that we're flawed without God's guidance.. but man's inclination is to put himself on that throne, as the master of his own actions. And the outcome, like the premise, is the same as it ever was. Man's technology and knowledge of the world around him has changed, but the consequences for his actions have not. The names have changed... Jereboam, Ahab, Bush, Obama... it makes no difference. Our leaders are not our saviors, and when they're deified, some of the most horrific human tragedies happen as a result... think of the giant pictures of Saddam Hussein, or the monuments erected to Hitler . It's a testament to unbridled human power's legacy.
5. It's only going to get worse, no matter how much we try to prevent it. We can elect politicians to try and solve our problems, but the Bible says that until the end of history, when Christ returns triumphantly to earth, things will continue to worsen. Natural and manmade catastrophes, apocalyptic as it may sound, point to the end times. Entropy is a natural law - disease and decay, made possible by sin, are unescapable.
   And by every indication, Biblical and otherwise, Christians will be subject to more intense and widespread persecution, and the United States is and will be no exception to that. We've been the recipients of a fairly godly culture for many years, and until relatively recently, the majority at least paid a cursory respect to Christian culture and ethics in America. That is no longer the case; the majority is now at least ambivalent to Christians, a plurality of them hostile to Christian values. Christ in Matthew 10 said that we should expect this.. we should expect to be imprisoned, persecuted, even put to death for our faith.

Seems grim, right? I must admit, thinking of the implications of this last election really had me worried, at first. There are a lot of potential bad things that could happen in the very near future. Yet do we really believe that electing the right person is going to do anything but put off the inevitable for another 4-8 years?

This is where I had it completely wrong. By fretting the consequences of the election, I was not obeying God and acting in faith. Jonah probably had the same misgivings and bad feeling in his gut that we do, and he didn't obey God either when he was instructed to go to Ninevah. He thought, "No, God! Anyone but Ninevah! They're completely lost to the cause!" and with that he fled to the exact opposite corner of the known world, and we all know what happened after that. But God knew better than Jonah what was good for  Ninevah... He knew that the city was on the verge of transformation, something that Jonah had to trust because he had a ground view of everything.

There is a time to weep about the state of our country, but after that we must come to a reckoning - that our will, however well-meaning, is not God's will. Like Jonah, we don't see from God's perspective. We don't know the big picture, but God does. And we can take the news about the election and the state of our country badly, or we can choose to act rather than react and claim our area, our city, county, state, yes even our country for Jesus!

From Matthew 10 and Jesus' instructions, we are told how to live in light of such circumstances:

1. Be wise. Use God's word as a handbook for your daily lives in this tumultuous world. It contains absolute truth, and if you're in the Word every day, this truth will come to light in the midst of your circumstances. You need to be able to discern between truth and deception, between grace and compromise. Tolerance has been given much too broad a definition these days - to many, it now means embracing lifestyles that are not pleasing to God. We need to understand the difference between loving your neighbor and seeing that person as God sees him.... and compromising what is truly known as right and wrong. God loves the sinner, but it's not His desire for the sinner to stay that way, lost and separated from Him. 
2. At the same time, be humble. Love and humility go hand in hand. You can preach until your mouth goes dry and shake your Bible until the pages fall loose, but as 1 Corinthians 13 says, unless you have love, it's useless. Have you ever heard "do as I say, not as I do?" When people observe your actions, and that goes for acting better than anyone else, coming across as 'holier-than-thou', as well as any other circumstance, they ascribe what they know about Jesus to what they see in you - because we as Christians are all living representatives of Christ on earth. We should do our best to mirror him.. what better way than to read His Word and talk to him daily, always keeping in mind that he went so far as to die for all of us?
3. Prepare for persecution or worse. We have the privilege of living in a country that has been founded on Christian principles and has lived more or less by them for a number of years. That foundation, if you keep up with today's media culture, is crumbling around us. Ironically, the same people who call for tolerance of their sinful lifestyles show no such tolerance for Christians. Some even go out of their way to attack and denigrate Christians. Believe me, though, that is far from the worst it could be. Christians in other countries, like those under Islamist and atheist governments, are severely persecuted, tortured, and executed as a matter of routine. This has been the truth since the beginning - every single one of Jesus' disciples except John was put to death... and John died in exile on the isle of Patmos. Throughout the centuries, Christians have suffered and died for the cause of Christ at the hands of evil men. Our good fortunes in America will most likely not last for long.
4. Consider opposition an opportunity. It is when things are darkest that the light is most visible. In the face of true opposition to Christianity, one should be reminded that the in this contrast of good and evil, the light of Christ shines strongest. The people in China, for example, where they are in danger of death for their beliefs, are strong Christians and part of a living and rapidly growing church. I've heard stories about them memorizing pages of the Bible to recite to each other in case their physical Bible was taken from them. In such severe circumstances, it takes strong faith to survive.
   Can you imagine, though, what these people might be thinking when they're arrested by secret police, or taken in front of the judge or cast before their executioner? When one does not fear death, and has eternity in heaven to look forward to, the people who stand in opposition to them are another opportunity to speak the truth with the realization that God can indeed change men's hearts. (e.g. the conversion of Saul; the jailer at Phillipi; etc.)
5. Let the Holy Spirit guide you. Sometimes when we're put in situations where we can witness to others we're afraid what or how to say so as not to offend, or be put off, or look dumb. What are we thinking? The people you talk to, whether they be in some seedy bar, on the street, at the supermarket, or whatever, may never have another chance to hear the Good News. If you're thinking that the people around you might judge you because of what you say, consider this - there's 100% chance that the person you're talking to has just as many fears/doubts/hangups as you do. We're all human, and we need to get past the human way of looking at other people and consider looking at them from God's perspective. If you're trusting in Him, then you will have no problem saying the right thing at the moment - even if it may seem awkward. God knows a LOT more about that person than you do, trust him.
6. Accept that you will be hated but persevere nonetheless. Why? Because it's worth it! If you were fleeing a burning building and saw people sleeping on your way out, wouldn't you wake them vigorously to join you? Should we have so much antipathy for people who are asleep spiritually that we would want them to suffer eternally in Hell? I would hope and pray not... especially considering the Lord Jesus loves every single one of us, tragically flawed that we are, equally, and he died to prove it.
   He too was reviled, and if you are following in his footsteps, it's going to happen to you too. But we have an example to live by, and nothing that will happen to you for your testimony has never happened to Him.
7. REPEAT: Don't give up. We have to remember that there is something much, much greater than this, and that God rewards those who endure persecution and suffering to the end. And if you've exhausted all of one area, move to another, and don't stop. Anticipate the final goal, whether it be your reunion with the Bridegroom or his imminent return to earth.
8. Vocalize the truth. Do stand up for what is right. Proclaim God's word. If God lays something on your heart, "shout from the housetops for all to hear!" The disciples didn't have the advantage of knowing what Jesus was going to do, that he was going to die and resurrect himself from the dead in three days. They were living it with him. Jesus assured them that everything that they were going to preach to the world was going to be revealed as truth in time... that they indeed had a mission, and they should not be fearful of threats in light of God's promises.
9. Participate in the process. By all means, don't cower in fear and neglect to participate in the political process. We can still make our voice heard, see above, by voting, signing petitions, and participating in our electoral process for as long as it exists. Our forefathers knew very well what tyranny was, and the system they devised of checks and balances, while it may not last forever,  is a hardy one. Be a citizen, not an observer.
10. Don't be afraid. Death is not the end of this... this is our assurance.  Our body, like all before us, will end up rotting in the grave... it's of temporal use; however, our soul is eternal.  The only one who should be feared is God, who has control of our eternal destiny. And this is more than just the prompts of a puppetmaster - it is the hand of God that rescues the lowly sparrow; it is the mind of God that knows all the hairs on your head individually, and it is God in his eternal capacity for love who values each of us personally as his children. 

Don't let your heart be troubled because of an election. Many tragic things have happened during the brief history of this planet; abominations are a hallmark of man's fallen nature. It's not our purpose to lash out, but to reach out. We are not merely aliens on this planet awaiting our rescue from a doomed world, but fellow created beings with a Heavenly Creator God who should be reaching out to others. Love tears away the veil and pierces the darkness, and we should be equipping ourself to share it with the world at large. What politics and rhetoric may cloud, God's truth makes clear - we are citizens, not merely of the United States, but of heaven itself. Let's think that far ahead, and everything will turn out just fine.