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.

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.

There's this great restaurant I don't want you to know about

We found the greatest Italian restaurant! We were just rambling around looking for some place we've never been before, and actually got a little turned around. But then Lynne saw something as we passed by and said we should try it. So we turned around, parked the car, went in, and gave it a try. Bar none, the best Italian food we've ever had!!! (And we're kind of picky about Italian food.)

But I don't want to tell you about it. We're not going to tell you what's on the menu, where it is, or even the name of the place. Trust us - it's awesome food. We plan on eating there regularly. The owner is very nice and welcoming. But ... we're just going to keep this information to ourselves.

You see, what if Italian cuisine offends you? Maybe you really can't stand Italian food. You were forced to eat really bad Italian food as a kid, and now just the mention of Italian food makes you mad. We wouldn't want you to be offended.

Besides, who am I to tell you where you should eat? You're a grown adult and can make your own choices. You know how to find restaurants. Just because we like this place doesn't mean you should like this place.

And what if you ask me how the pasta sauce is made, and I don't know? I know I like the sauce, but quite honestly, I can't tell you the recipe. I pretty much know how they make the pasta - I can answer those questions. But that sauce? I don't really know, and I don't want you to ask me questions I can't answer.

What if you've heard bad reviews of this restaurant? Maybe you read somewhere on the Internet about someone who ate there and thought it was awful. Or, worse - maybe you know some people who like that same restaurant, but you've seen how they behave in restaurants. Their behavior is horrible. So if they recommend this restaurant, it's probably the last place you'd want to eat, right? Who would want to eat where they eat?

Or maybe you'll find out I'm a hypocrite. Maybe you'll catch me sometime in a weak moment eating Spaghetti-O's. How could you take Italian restaurant advice from someone who eats that?

I know, I know - you've seen some of those TV chefs, and they're just after your money. Plus, there's that one politician who wants to make teachers teach Italian cooking in the public schools.

So, I'll just keep my restaurant choices to myself.

On the other hand, the food in this restaurant is the best we've ever had. Come and see. Try it for yourself. Make up your own mind. If you don't like it, we'll still be friends.

Under Pressure!

Have you ever felt pressured by others to share your faith? I'm not talking about the positive pressure of encouragement, like two teammates spurring each other on to run faster, jump higher, or hit harder. I'm talking about harsh pressure, like you're being forced to eat your vegetables, and if you don't, you're a bad person. Have you ever felt that? (And I am fully aware that there may have been times when I have unintentionally been the one to apply that pressure.)

Those negative, even guilt, feelings we have about this are compounded when we remember that we actually have something wonderful to share. Now, I feel twice as bad - not only am I not doing what I ought, but it's not like I'm withholding bad news. Good news should be easy to share, right? If I really believed this was wonderful news, then why am I such the horrible person who doesn't share it?

Why do we feel this pressure? Surprisingly, this pressure most often does not come from the encouragement to share our faith. That's not the real issue in most cases, I believe. But because we think it's the issue, then we suffer the twin devils of pressure and guilt.

The actual issue, in my opinion, is that we feel pressured to share our faith in a particular way - a way that's foreign, unnatural, mysterious, awkward, uncomfortable, manipulative, or completely contrary to our personal makeup. We (mistakenly) think, or have been (mistakenly) told, that not only should we share our faith, but that it must be done in a particular way - that sharing your faith is synonymous with a particular method. And if that way doesn't match your personality, then your personality is deficient, stubborn, or even sinful. Pressure applied, thank you very much.

The underlying error is worse: a mentality that has reduced the Gospel to something like "Three Steps to Avoid Hell." We take the fullness of the Gospel, squeeze it down into "fire insurance," and then are left with nothing but pressured-filled ways that it must be shared.

Search the Gospels - you'll never find Jesus reducing the Gospel like that. Rather, He consistently speaks of the nearness, the nature, and the accessibility of the Kingdom of God. He never reduces the Gospel to getting your ticket punched. There's far too little space in the blog to fully discuss the significance of this observation.

Instead of saying, "Share your faith in a prescribed way or else you're a bad Christian," let me offer a different kind of encouragement: Leave Kingdom fingerprints everywhere. As you live, as you work, as you play, as you have family time, leave "evidence" of the Kingdom of God. Demonstrate the nearness of the Kingdom by living as a representative in the midst of others. Bring the nature of the Kingdom into your work and activities by infusing its attributes into everything you do, attributes such as integrity, compassion, and justice. Make the accessibility of the Kingdom obvious by being authentic and transparent, and as appropriate, but letting others know how accessible it is. How can I exit every scene of the story of my life with some evidence of the Kingdom left behind?

Sharing how someone can become a member of God's Kingdom (the redux of the rich Gospel) still has a prominent place, but is now set in the larger frame of seeing our life's task as leaving Kingdom fingerprints everywhere. My "job" is to leave as much evidence as possible. That doesn't seem very pressure-filled to me.

No formula. No recipe. Just a lifestyle of leaving evidence of the Kingdom everywhere you go, from the gym to the grocery store to neighborhood association meeting. Some of the evidence is the example you give, some of the evidence is by adding Kingdom values to a situation that needs it, some of the evidence is verbal testimony. I don't want to limit your imagination on ways to do this. Acts of mercy and compassion, being there with someone in sorrow, offering truth without necessarily quoting chapter and verse, all kinds of ways to leave Kingdom fingerprints. Artists and bridge builders can leave evidence; teachers and truck drivers can leave evidence; students and retirees can leave evidence. Everywhere.

By the word "fingerprints," I don't necessarily mean something subtle, hard to detect, and insignificant. I mean evidence that can be obvious and traceable - evidence that any observer would easily trace back to the Kingdom of God, and in fact make it hard to ignore the Kingdom of God. Leave enough evidence to be convicted of being a citizen of God's Kingdom.

Grace and Human Effort

Point: Jesus says that apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:1-11). The consistent Christian message is that we cannot accomplish anything significant by our own effort: salvation, sanctification, holiness, converting others, and so on. A significant portion of the narratio Dei (the narrative of God) is demonstrating that man cannot repair the damage inflicted upon himself by his sin or reach the presence of God by his own devices.

Counterpoint: Diana Nyad, 64, swims from Cuba to Florida in 53 hours. Felix Baumgartner reaches Mach 1.25 jumping from a balloon at nearly 128,000 feet and lands safely. Men and women gather their collective abilities to launch rovers to land on Mars then explore and send back mountains of data. An international team collaborates to determine how to decode DNA. Man can do amazing things with or without calling upon God for any help.

Two of the many questions these observations bring to the surface are:

1. How can both be true?
2. Should I or should I not try hard with the activities of the Kingdom?

How can both be true? Do we have conflicting observations, or are they complementary? Can we or can we not do something significant on our own? There's no denying the amazing feats accomplished by believers and unbelievers alike - physical achievements, mental achievements, and even overcoming challenges to personal fortitude.

For both to be true, there must be one other observation: Making ourselves eternally significant is a feat more difficult than even the most amazing human accomplishment. Rather than downplay or deny the significance of what humans have accomplished "on their own," the magnitude of what we can do only shows just how impossibly difficult it is for us to even approach "good enough" by God's holy standard. In other words, Observation 2 (the greatness of man's accomplishments) demonstrates by comparison the height of Observation 1 (the greatness of God's accomplishment in us).

The greatest things we've done are still less than what Jesus accomplishes by meeting God's standard. And then, by grace through faith, He gives to us as a gift that kind of perfection! Not our own, but His accomplishment cloaked around us, crediting it to us as if we had accomplished it ourselves.

Should I or should I not try hard with the activities of the Kingdom? If even the greatest acts of the most amazing men and women cannot advance the Kingdom, then what good are all the acts of us less amazing people? If the strongest man can't push a rock into heaven, why should the rest of us push at boulders? And yet God effectively commands us to push at boulders ("make disciples," "exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees," "love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength").

In order for our Kingdom-minded actions to mean anything, there must be one other observation: God's commands are not for what we produce, but rather for what He produces in us. He commands us to push at boulders not because He wants us to move boulders without Him, but that He wants us to be the kind of people who push boulders. By putting our every effort into pushing boulders, God changes us into the kind of people He wants us to be. He wants us to be fully committed boulder-pushers, the kind of people who pour every ounce of sweat into His business, even though we can't push boulders into heaven.

He'll take care of moving the boulders. But He wants us to be fully engaged in His work, rather than a bunch of boulder-watchers who are disengaged from His work. He wants us to resemble Him by being as involved in His work as it takes to swim from Cuba to Florida.

Man's greatest feats and God's Word are not at odds - the weakness of our "greatness" demonstrates how necessary the Cross is, just like the magnitude of the universe only demonstrates how much more vast God must be.

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.