Good morning…
“Lining up at the poles today, pondering political races, how do we discern where to cast our votes?” This sentence began the message I scheduled for 3:00 am this morning. When I woke from sleep, I chuckled as I re-read the words, picking up my typo. Did you catch it also? For months as a country we have lined up at different poles. Republican – – – Democrat. Liberal – – – Conservative. For – – – Against. Today we line up at the mid-term election polls.
I have heard some ask, “Why vote? My one vote will not make a difference.” I have heard others say, “I think I’ll just call a friend from the other political party, we’ll agree to stay home from the polls, and our ‘non-votes’ will cancel each other out.” Some also say, “Everything is so screwed up politically, I do not want to give my votes to anyone.” I sense the tired powerlessness behind each of these arguments.
Still, exerting our powerful freedom, as most of us gather from different poles at the polls, how do we discern where to cast our votes?
- Before, during, and after voting, we saturate ourselves in conversational prayer with the Creator of everyone.
- We personally pay attention to God’s Holy Spirit voice welling up from within.
- On page 151 in Journey With Jesus, Larry Warner writes of the discernment process: “When you are proceeding from good to better, you will experience God’s touch as light and gentle, like a drop of water falling on a sponge.”
- On the contrary, we will experience the opposite of God’s choice for us “like a drop of water hitting a stone.”
- The better choice for us gradually sinks in, while the other choice not for us naturally bounces off.
Our votes, collectively cast, will fall like raindrops on the river, rising to restore God’s fertile flow over the hard rock bed built up by time. Each vote feeds the river running through us. Voting in freedom, we trust the cyclical handiwork of the Sustainer of life. Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea (Ecclesiastes 1:7, NLT).
…Sue…
