A Vote of Confidence

This post is a part of the Five Minute Friday link up. We write for just 5 minutes without heavy editing and see what happens. Today’s prompt is “vote.”

When I was in junior high school, I ran for Student Body President. I’m not sure what I was thinking because I wasn’t one of the popular girls. And you know that’s what you had to be in order to win.

I don’t remember what my platform was, or if I even had a platform. But I remember some of my posters: “For Pete’s Sake, Vote Stephanie Allan for President!” and then this cute little bird that my artist sister drew in the corner saying “Who’s Pete?”

Clever, right?

Well, as you imagine, I didn’t win. I don’t even remember who won, but I think it was a guy. Go figure. This was the 70s after all. Feminism hadn’t made its way down to the junior-high level yet.

I’m not bitter. But the loss certainly didn’t do anything for my flagging confidence. Junior high (now known in most places as middle school) is tough enough without having poll proof that you don’t have enough friends.

In just a few days, America will hold an election of pretty great importance. Early voting numbers have set records in some places. Honestly, I don’t have confidence in either major party candidate. But I voted, and I didn’t vote for who was most popular, unlike any school election I’ve ever seen.

But this I know, my confidence is not in my government. Boy would I be in bad shape if it was. My confidence is in my Creator. The God of the universe who raises up kings and brings down kingdoms. No matter who wins this particular election, my eternal salvation is not at stake. I will continue to know nothing before you except Christ and Him crucified as Paul said to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2:2.

So yes, do your civic duty and go vote. But put your vote of confidence in Christ.

Let Us Reason Together

Today is election day here in Florida, so I thought it might be appropriate to talk about “reason” as today’s 10-Minute Tuesday post.

I didn’t choose it; that really happens to be the prompt for today.

“Come now, let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18) seems like a good thing to do, doesn’t it? Only in today’s fractured and splintered world, “reason” seems to be the last thing people want to do.

Yell. Rant. Accuse. Complain. Those all seem to be more what people are doing these days. Fake news. Twitter politics. Innuendos instead of facts. We have lost our ability to talk to each other and listen. Especially listen.

I remember more than a decade ago when my church wanted to buy property across the street from my house. Which happens also to be right across the street from a large church of another denomination. We had to go through a rezoning process, which should have been fairly clear cut.

But a large contingent from the other church decided to appear at the zoning meeting to try to get the project cancelled. Their “reasoning” was that another church would create a traffic problem since they themselves wanted to expand their facility to include a retirement center and day care and other things of that nature. So, we shouldn’t move in because they wanted to expand.

I remember sitting there and praying that someone on the zoning commission would hear past the rhetoric to what was really going on. I was glad to note that one of the commissioners addressed that very issue. You want to expand, so you don’t want another church moving in.

Our request was granted that day, and we have been in our building for more than 12 years now. The other church has yet to do their expansion. We live fairly peaceably with each other.

I tell that story to illustrate that we need to listen to the whole story. We need to see what we’re not seeing. We need to be patient and ask good questions and not jump to wild conclusions.

As Civil Rights activist John M. Perkins says in a 2015 article in The Table, “I believe today, God is calling us to come and reason together. In a land marked by the sins of racism, sexism, and all the other –isms, where we can’t disagree without also hating one another, it is time to have some meaningful dialogue. It is time for a new conversation.”

 

What Will Wednesday Bring?

 

Unless you live in a deep, dark hole (and which of us doesn’t from time to time?), you know that today is Election Day in the United States. Usually, elections are a time of excitement and anticipation, of change and newness. This year, though, it seems that it’s a time of fear and anger and dread. So we hope and we pray.

And we vote.

For the first time ever, I participated in early voting this year. I wanted to avoid the long lines I hoped would be evident come Election Day. I’ve heard reports of both. My husband went early this morning and there was no line. Another friend in another state had to wait an hour.

Looming questions hang over us like Damocles’ sword. Will the election be fair? Will riots break out if one candidate — or the other — loses? What will life look like on Wednesday morning?

I don’t have the answer to most of these questions, but I do know one thing: God is still on His throne. And America, believe it or not, is not the center of the universe.

So Wednesday morning, I will wake up like I always do, to a praise song playing from my

Before I leave my house I will take care of my dog and my birds and my cats and my fish. I will eat what I chose for breakfast. I will leave my mother-in-law to prepare for her day of homeschooling my nephew. I will keep my doors and windows open to the cool Florida November weather.

And I will go teach school.

I will say the Pledge of Allegiance in Latin with my students. I will grade papers. I will lead them in a devotion about the life of Joseph in Egypt. I will pray with them.

And we will probably pray for our nation.

Because Wednesday morning will be like any other morning in America, come what may, and God is still on His throne.

It’s our job to make sure that while some things stay the same, the things that really matter will change. I will be kinder, more generous, more loving. I will listen more and speak less. I will be a catalyst for change in a world that will still be lost and broken after today. No election is going to change that.
Only Jesus.

And I will let my little light shine.

 

America, America, God shed His grace on thee.