The Day After Tomorrow

I haven’t written anything in two months, but today I feel inspired. No, that’s not entirely accurate. I feel less inspired than I do motivated.

I am a person who doesn’t get motivated easily. I really like things to go along pretty steadily, with a little spice thrown in here and there. And by “spice”, I mean eating at Litton’s (a local hangout) instead of Cracker Barrel. I am pretty much a creature of habit. I wouldn’t so much say I am comfortable, because I am definitely not that. But I am extremely fond of things going smoothly. This presidential election did not go smoothly, nor will the transition go quietly. I am not a fan of that.

This years presidential election has been a wild roller coaster ride. I have never seen anything like it, nor do I ever want to again. Let me say this right here and now—Donald Trump’s tweets frequently make me facepalm myself. I am not necessarily a fan of the man, but he is the duly elected official of this country, and I respect the office of the president. I think he has done some good things and I also think he’s made some mistakes. However, he is not my moral compass and I can sleep at night knowing I’m not accountable for the way another human conducts their life. My role as a Christian is to watch and pray for whomever is in leadership at the moment, and I have done so. He is our governing authority, and as such, deserves that.

Having said that and gotten it out of the way, let me say this…a person can be all of the above and still be chosen by God to lead this country. Romans 13:1 tell us “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” This statement is pretty straightforward. There is actually not a whole lot of room for misinterpretation of this scripture. Yet, we will use this verse to justify one and crucify the other. I would submit, for your consideration, that the same God who placed President Trump in power, may be getting ready to place Joe Biden in power. If we believe this verse and we believe God is in control (like we always say He is), then we must believe BOTH (if indeed we are gonna have a leadership change) are appointed for God for reasons known only to Himself. I do not presume to know the mind of God on this, nor should anyone else. All I know is that God is usually up to something, and He seldom lets me in on His plans.

The way I see it, God can put anyone He sees fit into positions of authority. We have no idea of what’s in a person’s heart. We can speculate and we can guess, but we have no way of truly knowing. That being said, God didn’t always choose the most righteous or the most holy one to be the leader of the people. He chose the weak, the cowardly, the broken. He chose the Ones who were least likely to succeed. He also chose the good, the godly, the righteous. He chose humans.

I am an evangelical Christian. I believe God’s Holy Word, and I believe God is absolutely not surprised at anything we humans do. He knows the end from the beginning, after all. Not to put too fine a point on it, we humans are a fairly predictable lot. We can mostly be counted on (if left to our own devices) to choose the lowest denominator possible. We don’t make good decisions, and we smell funny (well, some of us do). Yet, in this messy mishmash of humanity, we somehow make our way towards God. Even though we are a tribe of knuckleheads, we somehow know we lack. And there is where God does His greatest work. In order for us to improve, we first have to look for God, find Him, and receive Him. There is no other way.

Here’s the deal…at the end of the day, who are we to say someone is or isn’t our president? The children of Israel were wicked and wanted a king, so God gave them King Saul. But at no time did God ever say, “Well, I’m just giving in because this is what you want. Saul really isn’t your king. I was only joking.” Over and over again, we see God giving the people what they wanted and even turning them over to wicked rulers to bring about repentance. God has not changed.

This country is in for a drastic change. It’s time for us Christians to man up, put in our mouth guard, buckle our chin straps and get ready for the game. If we’re out of practice, we need to hit the field and do push-ups. I don’t presume to know what God has in store, but we need to be ready for whatever that is, and the only way we can BE ready is to practice using our spiritual armor, pray, practice unity, love others, and watch carefully for what’s ahead, using Gods Word as our guide.

May we be wise as serpents and harness as doves. God bless.