Election Day Letter of 2012

"Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help." (Ps. 146:3)

My dearly beloved, these thoughts apply at any time that X = any organizational law or policy, and Y = any authoritative official, group or party to which we have an adverse reaction. I was asked if I was angry about an X, because of a Y. I replied, "at the moment, I'm not angry about X or Y". The person responded, "and you call yourself a Christian?".

The reason I call myself a Christian is because my confidence is in Christ alone, not in X's or Y's. God is building a city whose builder and maker is the Lord (Hebrews 11:10) and that's where I'm going, regardless of any X's or Y's.

I care about X and Y, and participate in God-given processes out of obedience, in order to be obedient to God and demonstrate love of His way. I expect the outcome of those processes to be used by God in His story for His glory. When I get angry though, it is usually motivated by personal pride (I'm better than X or Y) or resistance to God's will as it plays out (lack of trust) in the processes and results in the X's and Y's of the earth. So I try to avoid the anger, although frequently unsuccessfully.

My questions as a disciple of Christ are, how does your:

• life show that you expect God, instead of X's or Y's, to take care of you?

• action demonstrate stronger desire for God's city than for the cities of X's and Y's?

• obedient participation in God-given processes display surrender to God's sovereign movement in and among the X's and Y's of the world?

  
  

Faith can re-focus us toward expectations in line with God's sovereign work. He ordains all things that come to pass through our involvement but not necessarily in the direction of our immediate desire. We never fully understand how or why God uses particular X's and Y's. Do we believe that He is though (???), using X's and Y's for the ultimate consummation of His plan in the New Heaven and the New Earth?