I started this post as a draft back in August 2012 during the height of election season. I never finished it because 1. I couldn’t stay focused on it, and 2. every time I’d see it in my drafts list the motivation to finish it was not there. Perhaps it was laziness or apathy, or as I suspect, perhaps it was not the appropriate time for me to post it. By God’s providence I now have the urge to write about it on the 4th of July.
I read the draft I had started months ago and laughed, at least in my mind, because it was ridiculous. So much has changed in me regarding politics in recent months including how I view and interact with politics.
If any of you have ever read my previous blog (rebornjumpman.wordpress.com) it’s pretty obvious that I am into politics, especially foreign policy. I am generally speaking a fiscally conservative constitutionalist with libertarian leanings which should give you a clue as to what types of issues would get me going.
In recent years as I have grown more accustomed to the world of politics I’ve found it enthralling. This probably stems from a deep desire to change the world. The one big truth that I have learned over the last eleven months is this: It doesn’t really matter. Not that it doesn’t matter at all, but to a large extent it doesn’t really matter. I say this not to belittle the process and those involved, but because this all will pass away.
As a Christian, I am not my own. I am a child of God and a citizen of his Kingdom. Jesus has given the Church a mission to share his gospel with the world, but what he didn’t charge us to do was to take up a party platform.
Practically what this means is quite simply this. Jesus is not a democrat, republican, libertarian, socialist, Keynesian, or any other political/economic affiliation that you’d care to insert to make it relevant to your particular bent. He’s the King of kings over a Kingdom with no end.
What I’ve come to realize is that if I’m a Christian then my primary citizenship is to the Kingdom of God, meaning I am first a Christian then an American. In decision making or consideration of a particular event I’ve got to ask the question, How does this affect the Kingdom? and seek God for the proper course of action.
Way too many of my brothers and sisters, whom I love, get way too consumed with the state of the Union. The recent Supreme Court rulings striking down DOMA and upholding the lower court ruling regarding California’s Proposition 8 are a perfect example. It doesn’t matter what the Courts say or what the President says about this matter, it matters what Jesus says and if you’re going to consider Jesus’ words you have to remember all of what he said including to give the government what belongs to them and God what is his remembering that Jesus is the Judge on the White Throne in the end, not us. I think there is a reason that he only charged us with making disciples and sharing the gospel, because we’re not God and we cannot handle that kind of pressure.
Ancient Abandon 