Lead Your Family…to the Voting Booth!
This is not a political blog, and that isn’t going to change. I’m not going to try to persuade you how to vote this November, although I will provide you with some links to other sites that may help YOU make your best decision. What I am going to do is persuade you to exercise your critical American right to vote for the highest public officials in our land. Rates of voter turnout have been consistently pitiful throughout our land for way too long. You want real change? GET TO THE POLL AND VOTE AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY, TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WHY THIS IS SO IMPORTANT, AND BRING THEM WITH YOU WHEN YOU GO!
Just last night, my wife was reminding me of the insightful and reassuring Biblical passage from Acts 5:33-39, in which Gamaliel dissuades the angry mob from lynching the apostles by telling them, “For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” We talked about how this must apply, given God’s sovereignty over all, to our government leaders, and how this can really help to calm our anxieties that can emerge in the face of various political dynamics. However, I do not believe this means we should take a laissez faire attitude toward politics, and particularly elections. Simply kicking back and resting in the loving sovereignty of God, while doing nothing to exercise our own God-led wisdom, will, and power of responsibility is foolish and lazy. Our kids, our communities, our nation, and our planet deserve more from us. Not to mention, God expects us to get up and fight with the tools He has given us! Just check out this little vignette where Moses reassures the people that they can sit back and watch God deliver them, to which God immediately corrects him by telling the people to get up and get moving.
If you are concerned about the well-being of your family and community today, whether in moral, educational, economic, social, or whatever other terms, DO WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT! Is your one vote going to make headlines as some earth-shattering event? Of course not. Does your vote matter? You bet your biscuits! And it isn’t just about casting your one vote. It’s about influencing your kids, your family, and your neighbors throughout your sphere of influence to cast their votes when they have opportunity. Your decision to take a proactive part in this election, and every local, state, and national election to follow, may make a MUCH BIGGER IMPACT THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE.
Finally, I urge you to step outside of the pressures you may feel to vote in a particular way because you belong to this group or that. Investigate, listen, think, evaluate, pray, and act as a Spirit-led individual, not as simply a part of mindless groupthink. Here are some links that I hope will help you do just that…
USA TODAY RNC Coverage (check out the various “fact check” pages)
USA TODAY DNC Coverage (check out the various “fact check” pages)
7 Points for Christians to remember regarding political discourse
Please get out and vote this November! And please use your best loving persuasion to influence your family and friends to vote, as well. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat, Green, Libertarian, Republican, Independent, Whig, or Jedi (Okay, I’ll be honest, I’m really hoping the Sith vote stays home. Call me a disenfranchiser, if you will)…
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR LIFE AND COMMUNITY – VOTE!!!
Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future. – John F. Kennedy
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