Voting for President

Well, the presidential elections in the U.S.A. are about a raucous as an election could get.  I really cannot imagine it getting any worse.  Neither of the leading candidates are well liked.  Most Americans feel as if we are forced to choose between two bad choices.  (I would be one of them.)

But I had lunch today with a couple from our church.  What ensued was a discussion about the election and the candidates that was revealing for me.  One of my lunch-mates announced that he would not vote for anyone for president.  He surmised that he would just leave the ballot for that election unchecked when he votes.  I found myself admonishing him to not squander his vote.  

Moreover, as we talked about it, I began to see that Christians have a duty to vote.  Living in a democracy is a privilege granted to us by none other than God Himself.  (Just ask those who don't live in a democracy.)  I'm not sure that many Christians in America would see it that way.  We may know it is a right - which women and those of African heritage have had to fight for.  But even I have sometimes felt like voting was more of a burden than anything.  

We often resign ourselves to the conclusion that our vote doesn't matter.  After all, I'm just one person among about 300 million people.  If I don't vote, my vote won't be missed.  Of course that argument makes common sense.  Things of this world can make common sense though - and still be wrong.  It just seems that my vote won't be missed.  But the truth is, if enough people took that attitude, it could change the outcome of the election.  Conversely, if enough people vote, that could change the outcome of the election.

Romans 13:1 tells us that "... there is no authority except that which God has established.  The (human) authorities that exist have been established by God."  

To our modern way of looking at things, this makes no sense whatsoever.  There are evil dictators.  There are lame leaders.  There is corruption and bureaucracy.  We reason that God does not establish them as authorities in our lives.  But alas, we reason ignorantly.  For God's Word is true.  Throughout the Old Testament, we see places where God did indeed use ungodly authorities to punish Israel for having turned from Him and His ways.

So is God punishing America today, by giving us two bad choices for president?  Maybe.  The truth is that I don't know.  God doesn't share such things with me.  But He has shared with me that it is possible.  He has shared with me the fact that He has acted in this way before.  And He has told me what to do about it.  I am to be obedient, submitted, and God-honoring in every way.  If the Lord has given me a vote, who am I to squander because I'm apathetic about the candidates?

So what should a good American Christ-follower do?  How should we respond to the unpleasant circumstances that we find ourselves in?  The first thing we should do is register to vote.  Make sure you have registered and are ready to exercise your legal right to vote.  Then educate yourself on the choices.  Maybe you don't like them.  But you owe it to God and to your fellow Americans to educate yourself on the merits of each choice.

 I'm on Facebook.  I watch TV.  I understand there are strong, passionate arguments for why Hillary Clinton can't be trusted or is "not a nice person."  I also understand those strong, passionate arguments that Donald Trump is a blowhard who believes his own lies.  Nevertheless, these are our choices.

We need to consider the fact that the powers that be - whether they be in the worldly realm or the spiritual realm - have given us these two choices.  A few short months from now, one of these two candidates will be installed as the most powerful leader in all of the free world.  One of them will lead the largest government in the history of the world.  

One of these two candidates will be in control of your future here on this earth.  And God says that it will have been His choice.  But He has nominated you to exercise your voice in the matter.  So consider the implications.  Get on-line.  Read comparison sights that compare and contrast the candidate's respective plans and points of view on the key issues of the day. 

Electing Leadership?

We're in the final countdown now, to the presidential elections here in the United States. Just a few more days until one of the biggest decisions in our country will be made. The world is watching, literally. I was in a Ugandan prison last month and was surprised to hear the prisoners discussing the U.S. presidential elections. For the world's only remaining super-power, the President of the United States has been called "the most powerful person on earth." So while we Americans think about electing our country's foremost leader, the world seems to understand that whatever we decide has an enormous impact on everyone else as well. I wonder if Americans are cognizant of that truth when they decide for whom they will vote.

In the elections we tend to discuss leadership and refer to the elected officials as leaders. But I've been thinking and I'm not so sure we have a handle on that. I mean to say that maybe leadership isn't the issue we think it is. If you look up the definition of leadership in the dictionary (or go to http://www.dictionary.com/) you'll find it is rather ambiguous. I read all of the available definitions of leader or leadership and think to myself, "No, that is not what I'm looking for in America today."

You can jump over to some Internet searches on leadership, and you end up in topics like qualities of leadership and other such topics - which tend to be someone's opinion of what leadership really is. Go into any bookstore today and there seems to be no end to business or religious books on leadership either. Quite frankly, I get sick of hearing it. Some of these books are pretty lame. It seems that we humans tend to confuse success with leadership. We take a football player, for example, who is a good athlete and makes a ton of money - and we call him (or her) a leader. Or we take a person who has made a lot of money in business - and we call him (or her) a leader. Is that really the criteria for leadership?

I am concluding that there is a cultural definition of leadership, at least in this country. It is perhaps better defined as influence or celebrity. It doesn't seem to be comprised of a particular set of skills or gifts or even behaviors. After all, the bully on the school playground can be considered a leader in today's terms. And we've all known about evil leaders like Hitler or Idi Amin. For centuries, and continuing today, the world has had many leaders that were truly bad people. A leader can be evil and still be considered a leader. Some would argue that they may not be effective leaders. But perhaps we assume that any reasonable definition of effective leadership would require positive results. Unfortunately, no dictionary seems to have that definition.

So if leadership isn't all it's cracked up to be, what should we elect instead? For starters, I think we should elect wisdom. It is that captured learning that lets you make extraordinary observations of past experiences and present information to come to new conclusions and make decisions that produce better results. I think we should elect discernment. It is the ability to sort through the noise and separate the urgent from the important. It is time we elect integrity. It is consistent thinking, speaking and behaving against a morally high set of values that are applied in all situations at all times.

We could argue for things like courage, for example. But I've seen courage be incredibly foolish. Sometimes people aren't afraid of things that they should be afraid of! Or we could argue for honesty and truth, but I've seen the truth spoken without love - and it turns out to be just mean. We could argue for tenacity or perseverance, maybe high energy. But I suspect those would ultimately fail us as well.

No, I believe I'm going to hold onto wisdom, discernment and integrity. Whoever is elected will be a world leader, good or bad. The world will be impacted by their leadership, whether they are effective or ineffective. But I think that Americans and the rest of the world will be best served if our next President is wise, discerning and a man (or woman) of integrity. Most of all, I would like to see our next President be truly submitted to God, leaning not on his own understanding, but turning to God in prayer for every decision and every perspective. So, my fellow Americans, do you think that is the person we can elect in the next few days?

Barack Obama's House

I am watching the Obama euphoria and wondering who this man really is. There are many questions, and not a lot of answers. Curiously, I noticed a story on-line a couple of days ago that I have yet to see in the American media.

The Times of London broke a story over the weekend about how Mr. & Mrs. Obama funded their current home --- with a loan from a criminal. To make the irony even more pathetic, the criminal's wife purchased the empty lot next door to the Obama's new home --- the same day. But of course, there is said to be "no connection."

The buyer of the empty lot next door, on the same day, is an Iraqi national of Great Britain. Imagine the odds of them purchasing an empty garden plot adjacent to Mr. Obama's new home --- with no house. Then imagine that the two transactions (theirs and the Obama's) closed on exactly the same day. Then imagine that they had "loaned" Mr. Obama's campaign $3.5 million just before that.

Barack Obama himself is quoted as saying that this was "just a bonehead stupid mistake." But really, one has to wonder why he just didn't call his local mortgage company to get a loan to buy the house --- like the rest of the America he wants to lead.

Check out the story at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3433485.ece.

I'm a registered Republican myself, so don't have a particular bone to pick with Obama. But more and more I am thinking Hillary Clinton was right when she said this man "has not been fully vetted." Sadly, it appears that the American media is so intoxicated with "obamaphoria" that they are incapable fo fully vetting this man. So I guess we'll have to turn to the Times of London to find out more about who this man is.