President Obama’s moniker for success has been his desire for ‘change.’ Whether or not he pulls it off is another matter. I get burned out by the polarization of the political landscape. I tire of hearing about the ‘good old days’ of the right and the lack of moral center that seems to characterize the left.
The desert fathers and mothers were faced with a society and a church that needed change. Only their approach and strategy did not have anything to do with societial structures. While we can ‘do something’ about who or who is not in power, we really need change of a different sort. What if God’s people everywhere committed to something simple but difficult? Calling on the name of the Lord? Here’s a comment about the fathers and mothers of the desert:
“It is a picture familiar enough in the Middle Ages; the three parts of society, those who fight, those who labour and those who pray, all working in their different ways for the life of the kingdom. Prayer was a great action to be fulfilled in the body politic; the monks were like trees, purifying the atmosphere by their presence” (The Lives of the Desert Fathers, 12).
Father, my sense is that God does not vote, nor does He care much about politics. Jesus so neatly carved through both Sadducee and Pharisee, to the sole point which was that we enter the Kingdom one at a time. We should strive to enter the narrow way, endeavor to spread light wherever we go, but shouldn’t think that by belonging to the right party, of any sort, we are somehow “bringing in the Kingdom.” Unless all we do begins and ends in prayer, we may as well hang out a sigh that says “Gone Fishin.”
I hear you loud and clear on this, God is not a Republican, nor is He a Democrat.
He’s something much higher, and far holier, than just a set of beliefs. He is God, and we must learn to fear Him.
I concur! I like being independant – praying & asking God for guidance in voting & all matters of life here on Earth.
The true Christian will always be the maverick, the alien, and the outcast. It is impossible to follow Christ and the world order at the same time. I hear too many pastors trying to tip toe through the political tulips of their congregations instead of shining the light of truth on the corruption and lies of the age. Your comments are refreshing. When we realize the entire system, like the Matrix, is programmed against us, cursed, we begin to understand the cost of following the Savior. I wonder how many of us are still plugged in, mistaking the virtual Christian life we live for the real thing.
Prayer changes things. Our prayers must line up with the will of God. But how to know the will of God? Through the Word. Politics be damned; Peter lays out how we are to live and interact in this world, and “…every authority instituted among men…” And when called to do evil by men, ultimately we are to do the will of God. How to know the will of God? Through the Word. When I get stuck for the right words to pray, I pray the Word.