October 31, 2008
As we race through the “home stretch” of this election towards its finish line this coming Tuesday, think well on what an act of worship that the casting of your vote is. Is it any accident that you are born into this generation? Is it simply a coincidence that you live where you do?
Not at all! In fact, a wealth of influence has been entrusted to you that you might help nudge that which is earthly towards that which is heavenly. From the influence that you exert upon your acquaintances to the opportunities you have been given to help others in need, you are invited daily to join God at work around you in His mission to “seek and save that which has been lost” (Luke 19:10). This fallen and broken world needs the help of God and you and I are invited to be a part of the remedy.
Your vote consequently is not your own but is a gift entrusted to you. You have been made a steward of this vote that the voice of God might be uttered through you in this election. Your vote is not about having your say (whatever popular culture tells you). It is a powerful means by which you may “flesh out” the life of Christ in you to influence this culture which in its turn profoundly influences the rest of the world.
It is true that you and I can use our votes selfishly, of course. We can use them to make OURSELVES be heard. We can push forward with OUR OWN “special interests”. After all, the God Who made the heavens and the earth and has appointed us to live in this day and hour, has given us the freedom to choose to use all our faculties in keeping with His will for our individual lives or to use in keeping with our own wills for our own selves apart from His grace.
But let us then not use that freedom to push for our own way. While it is indeed “natural” to look out for what we want (since the beginning of time when humanity chose its own way over God’s loving direction to the 21st Century when we daily make choices on how to spend our lives), selfishness in our choices generates only disharmony, distrust and destruction for ourselves and also has the unfortunate side-effect of harming others in the process.
As you vote this coming Tuesday, make it your intention to let God speak through you. As you seek to “render to Caesar what is Caesar’s” (Matthew 22:21), do so in such a way that God will be honored and pleased.
Those things which He esteems highly then should preempt those things that personally benefit us or serve our own desires. Let our choices be shaped by God’s holiness, His regard for the life that He has created (of those born and those unborn), His establishment of the institution of marriage between one man and one woman, and such virtues as integrity and grace.
Democracy is wonderful and freedom is joyous but only when they reside under the shadow of God’s will. Let us therefore choose in this election to abide under the shade of His grace lest we be scorched by the rays of self-will and sin. You may have but one vote to cast, but if it is cast with the desire to please God, it matters a great deal after all.
*This article originally published October 29th, 2004.
(Thom Mollohan and his family have ministered in southern Ohio the past thirteen years and is the author of The Fairy Tale Parables: Classic Fairy Tales Pointing to God's Love and Truth. He is the pastor of Pathway Community Church and may be reached for comments or questions by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).
