The Chuckle of Faith

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This is the last of our exhortations on civic involvement, at least for the present. And so, let me offer a series of final exhortations, as simple bullet points.

Regardless of what happens, we do not win or lose at the polls. God is always sovereign, and His position is absolutely unthreatened. He establishes the authorities that He wants, and so we thank Him for it, regardless.

His will in this may be for our blessing, and it may be for our chastisement. If the former, we should thank Him. If the latter, then we should repent, and then thank Him.

Our involvement should be one that is motivated by faith, and not in some kind of fleshly desire to grab control of this thing for ourselves. We could have 100% involvement from eligible voters here in our church community, and do it because we were all worked up in the wrong way. In short, we could influence the outcome of the election, in the direction we wanted, and still be under God’s chastisement. That is a caution to remember.

That said, we should also remember that hundreds of us have been uninvolved in local elections up to this point. Apathy is a sure fire way of getting what you think you don’t deserve.

The demeanor of our involvement must be a desire to serve, not a desire to rule. Those who want to rule, for the sake of the rule, are dangerous people. And they are not affecting the culture as “salt and light,” even if they are affecting it.

The besetting sin of conservative people when they get involved in things like this is to be shrill, impatient, petty, or hostile. And even when they are not, it is easy—given the tropes we usually work with—to sound like we are being that way. So in all that you do in the civic realm, let it always be accompanied by the chuckle of faith.

And last, whatever happens, we must not complain. Either we deserve the results or we don’t. If we don’t, then God is just and it won’t happen to us. If we do, then where is the basis for our complaint? Regardless of all our scurrying about, God is always in complete control, and He always gives us better than we deserve.

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