Vote As If

I believe very strongly that this year's election is for more about the future direction of the American church than which set of professional politicians command the White House and Congress for the next term. To be sure, this election will have long-term consequences for our nation no matter who is elected, and I feel rather sorry for whoever it will be, because they will inherit a bitter mess. But as I study Scripture, there is a constant message that God is in total control of the fate of leaders and nations, and that it is the constant job of His people to especially put their trust in Him during these times. Now is the time to trust God particularly, rather than to fret or to put nationalism higher than God until November 8.

I think of books like Isaiah, which we are currently studying, and Daniel, which we studied earlier this year. In both cases, God's people were subject to leaders far worse than any we currently have on the ballot. Yet, these leaders were put in place by God on purpose because He was doing something greater than merely putting in place the best "church-going politician" for a term.

Likewise, I believe God has allowed us to come to this point, to this choice, for a purpose that is more about the Church than for what goes on inside the Beltway. Perhaps He did so in order to correct something wrong with the Church. We may speculate that He's punishing our nation for something, but what if He's shaking up the Church instead?

If I'm right in this theory, God is (as He has so often done in the past) moving national events in order to position the future of His people, for blessing or for discipline (and more likely, for both). I'm not saying that Isaiah and Daniel are prophecies about 21st Century United States. Rather, I don't believe God stopped moving leaders and nations in order to accomplish His goals for His people, so His ways revealed then still help us navigate events now.

In those cases, God persistently commanded His people to trust Him, to not trust in the flesh or in leaders or in armies, and to not fear, even if the situation got much, much worse. He has a plan that He's carrying out according to His sovereign will, so above all, remain faithful. Don't give into fear, sin, or pragmatism. Worry about faithfulness above all and then trust God to accomplish His plan.

This election cycle has exposed some very unhealthy relationships between the Church and the State, such as a misplaced reliance on government to be the lord and savior of our nation on the one hand, and a misguided demonization of all those within the government on the other. It has exposed an ugly underbelly of the  "ungracious religious" who discard Christlike behavior in order to promote their politics (which Left or Right, they claim is God's favorite brand of politics). It has also exposed how many in the Church choose which of a candidate's sins to highlight and which ones to ignore based only on their party preference. Great hypocrisies of the Church have been laid bare, and I, for one, am glad the disease has finally been brought to light. Only then can the Church be healed of it.

We have too long embraced Constantinianism, which seeks to force the affairs of the State by the power of the Church (which is not the same thing as redemptive influence). We have also bought into an unhealthy dualism that separates the sacred from the secular, allowing us to discard one in order to concentrate on the other, and then on the next day, switch. Oddly, these twin problems seem contradictory (too much integration vs. not enough integration), but they are actually the same failing to understand what a healthy integration looks like.

But books like Isaiah and Daniel insist that we trust God even more fervently during days such as these, because God is in total control. If that's actually true, then there is no need to compromise, cut corners, fudge, or be confused about how we should hold both the Church and the State in our hands.

So vote "as if." Vote (or not vote) as if we actually do trust that God is in total control. That doesn't mean to vote for whoever is the "most Christian" (good luck figuring that one out). It doesn't mean to vote for whoever is from the "correct party" (God isn't a card-carrying member of any of them). Nor does it mean to throw up your hands and say, "whatever - God will sort it out."

Rather, it means to carefully consider your vote as if God is in fact in total control. Like Isaiah and Daniel, trusting His complete sovereignty allows you to stand before Jesus and say, "I didn't have to compromise Your values in order to be 'pragmatic'." Don't vote your conscience - vote His, as best you can. Of course every vote will be for someone who is not Jesus, someone who is broken, fallen, imperfect, sinful, and holding some policies that are abhorrent to Him. Of course! But He's got this - He's the One who put Nebuchadnezzar in power over the Israelites! We don't have the luxury of a clearly moral and wise candidate this time around (or almost every other time around, to be honest). There's no need to pretend that we do.

God has given us this situation on purpose, and He expects His children to honor Him with how they trust Him in the midst of it. Vote as if God is always intentional in everything, including allowing our nation to come to this point, perhaps even for the purpose of correcting the Church. Vote (or not vote) so that you can tell Jesus you didn't compromise, even though there were no options except disappointing ones. He's not only faced this situation before, He's manufactured them before.

And please, back off of those who vote for the same reasons for a different candidate. This is no easy choice, and God is still sovereign. Lastly, don't be fatigued by all this - rather, seize the opportunity God has given us to trust Him in the midst of political disarray. If we can't trust Him now, we can't trust Him ever.

Blind Path

Last week, I attended a retreat for a non-profit organization I serve on the board with, called Hungry 4 Him. We exist to partner with those who serve vulnerable children, which to date for us has meant orphans in Western Kenya. The Board meets in person every year or so, and online the rest of the year. This particular meeting also included a retreat, led by a licensed counselor who also conducts outdoors-themed retreats.

Our goal for the retreat was to focus on trusting God more. This involved several discussions of various passages as well as some outdoors activities - rock-climbing and other exercises. I was not physically well enough to do the rock climbing, but I was able to participate in another trust exercise. Some of us were blindfolded and the rest of us helped guide the blind along a rather uneven path, which lots of rocks, branches, level changes, and a drop off to one side.

So I guided another board member mostly by voice, and a little by touch, to navigate successfully down the path. There were quite a few places where an ankle could get seriously turned, but we made it just fine. Then we switched roles. However, it was my core muscles that were in pain - the very muscles one uses by instinct if they start to stumble. One wrong move, and I'd be racked with pain. But we went for it.

My guide used more touch than I had provided, which I needed. It was difficult to trust someone to go forward, but we worked it, getting over rocks, staying away from the ledge, and avoiding low branches. I was taking very small steps, but all in the right direction. I was surprised when the said we had made it - it seemed too short of a walk. But after lifting the blindfold, sure enough, we were back where we started.

Here's what struck me: I looked back at the path I had just navigated. I couldn't believe it! It looked far more perilous than how it felt. I navigated that? How could I do that? I could barely walk an uneven path that day by sight, and I had gotten through a somewhat narrow, variegated path with big rocks and a steep ledge. But because I was not allowed to see and my guide gave me what I needed to go forward, I made it through a path fraught with more dangers than I knew.

And so the lesson about the Christian life: We are mostly blind to all that goes on in God's plan and the heavenly realms. God intentionally prevents us from knowing all that endangers us, as an act of grace. And He guides us - by His voice and by touch - to take very small steps, but all in the right direction. Sometimes, it is difficult to trust someone to go forward. He allows us to navigate situations fraught with more dangers than we realize in order to progress to our destination. When the veil is lifted, we will be able to look back and see exactly what He's taken us through. We'll be surprised when we hear we have made it - it will seem too short of a walk.

You Just Don't Have Enough Faith

A friend of mine lost his job - laid off after working diligently to turn around the logistical operations of his company. Then, his own parents told him, "If you had more faith, you wouldn't have been laid off."

I've known more than a few people who became sick, anything from a routine cold to cancer, only to be told by their fellow church members that obviously they didn't have enough faith. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been sick, they say.

I'm sure most of you have also know people (or have been the person) to receive such disheartening "comfort" in your time of need. I hope none of you have been the one dishing it out. The Old Testament book of Job shows us that this kind of advice is older than the Bible itself.

However, these examples are a bit too obvious, almost comical, if they weren't so harmful and uncaring. There is a more subtle, more insidious strain of this disease. Something bad happens to you, something painful, some form of loss, some minor or major disaster, and you begin to wonder, "OK, what did I do wrong? I suppose I didn't pray enough. If I had just been more diligent to read my Bible. God, I know I'm not living right ... are You trying to teach me something?"

Although it sounds different, it's really the same kind of bad advice as "You just don't have enough faith. Otherwise..." And you're the one giving yourself that bad advice!

I try to imagine someone who spews this kind of counsel and how he or she would give the Apostle Paul spiritual guidance. The folks in Antioch pelt Paul with stones and kick him out of town for preaching Christ. "Paul, if you just had more faith, then they wouldn't have hurt you." Paul gets falsely accused of crimes and spends a total of four years in prison before he gets a trial, and an unfair one at that. "Paul, you must not have been reading your Bible enough. Otherwise, you'd be a free man." Paul gets a "thorn" in his flesh, and instead of discovering that God's grace is sufficient for him, he's told by his friend that obviously, he's not praying with enough faith (2 Cor 12:1-10).

Paul has a different opinion about his life, from 2 Cor 4:

7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8 We are experiencing trouble on every side, but are not crushed; we are perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 we are persecuted, but not abandoned; we are knocked down, but not destroyed, 10 always carrying around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our body. 11 For we who are alive are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal body.

Yes, the lack-of-faith response is easily debunked as the necessary cause for specific suffering. But that doesn't mean it isn't true.

The truth is: You don't have enough faith. You just don't. And, perhaps, some of the things we suffer, we suffer because we don't have enough faith. But we can't let the cold-hearted, ill-informed, judgmental comments of bad counselors keep us from realizing that, in fact, we don't have enough faith, and if we had more faith, our lives would be different. Not necessarily easier or more pleasant, but certainly different. More like the life of Christ, specifically.

"But I can't just turn on faith like a water faucet!" You can't? Actually, you can, because what you're waiting for is not faith but confidence. Faith is merely choosing to live as though some claim is true. If you tell me there's $100 waiting for me on the kitchen counter, I don't need a wave of boldness to move me like the wind into the kitchen. If I believe you, I'll just decide to get up and walk into the kitchen. If I don't believe you sufficiently, I'll keep watching baseball on TV. Just like a water faucet.

What bolsters faith into strong confidence is not a flood of sure feelings, but rather acts of faith already done. I may not have confidence that $100 is in the kitchen ... until after I walk in there by faith. Then I'll be confident. Of course, it matters who I'm trusting in and whether or not I'm trusting something he or she actually promised. But faith, whether justified or not, is acting as if a claim is true. And we don't have enough of that.

So, you don't have enough faith. Get over it. More to the point, you might be confusing faith with confidence. Accept what God says for Himself, and as simple as getting up and walking into the kitchen, walk and act and talk and decide and speak like the promise is true. That's an act of faith, whether or not it is all that confident.

Confidence will come if and only if 1) what God says is trustworthy, and 2) we walk as if it is long enough to discover that it actually is.

What if we really believed that...

What if we really, truly, deeply believed that Hell is just as horrible as Scripture describes?

What if we really believed that God's Word has its own power, once it's shared?

What if we really believed that God hears and answers prayers according to His will?

What if we really believed that God draws people to Himself?

What if we really believed that we can't do anything on our own to convince one's soul that it needs Christ?

What if we really believed that as we reach out to love others in faith that God will do things beyond our own abilities?

What if we really believed that apart from Him we can do nothing, but if we abide in Him, He will bear much fruit through us?

What if we really believed that the only way to save our lives is to lose them?

If we really, truly, deeply believed these things, would we live differently?

I'm not suggesting that none of us believe these things. It's not hard to find people who completely agree with all these ideas. But the question is what if we trusted these truths so much that we lived in a way that depended on them being true? In other words, what if our actions were based primarily on the faith that these truths are exactly as the Word tells us they are? What if we lived so dangerously that if any of these statements weren't true, we would be the world's biggest fools?

What if what we believed is what we completed trusted?

I never advocate "blind faith" - faith without knowledge. God gives us reason after reason to trust Him - faith in Him is a rational act. When the Word exhorts us to "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor 5:7), it means that based on God's known character, we can live "dangerously" - we can live trusting that all these ideas are really, truly, deeply true.