I used to want to be a politician. At one time, long before I had ever had my first thoughts of serving God, I planned to serve the people—At least, I had these noble thoughts that exalted political service as being selfless and honest.
As a child, I had it all planned out: College and law school. From serving clients in the courthouse to serving the people in the halls of power. I was a dreamer.
Only, I had it all wrong. God took me and turned me the right way.
The greatest power in this world isn’t in “the People’s House,” it’s in God’s house. It’s in my faith. And yours. It’s in our love.
That is selfless. That is service.
One night many years ago I found myself with a friend eating dinner at The Capitol Hill Club—the exclusive Republican social club that sits at the bottom of Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. We were guests of the top aide of then-Speaker of the House John Boehner. This aide invited us to dinner in order to lay down the law for my friend who had plans to challenge the sitting congressman from our district in the next election. The power structure was protecting itself.
He told my friend that even if he managed to get elected he would be only one of 435 in the U.S. House and he would accomplish nothing because he would be all alone. Just one against the many. He was told to go home, play nice, and when his time came—he’d be told.
(As an aside, did you know that the primary job of your congressional representative is to get re-elected? Shocker, right?! So they spend more time making phone calls to raise campaign funds than they do legislating. Every phone call may not be as obvious as actually asking for a donation. But every call has an ultimate goal that involves green.)
So my friend was told he would be powerless even wearing one of those precious congressional pins every representative wears and even in the most powerful city in the world.
Politics. I wanted one of those pins myself once upon a time. I thought with the power obtained came the opportunity to serve. And I was right about that one thing.
But I was wrong about everything else.
God is, of course, the source of the real power in this world. And when you tap into that power—it opens a WORLD of opportunity to serve! We are talking about real service, too. Saving lives, changing the future for generations!
And it doesn’t require phone calls to bankroll your reelection to God’s service. You keep that open line to Him and He will keep you employed in serving souls, in making a difference.
I don’t just eschew politics now, I despise them. I still admire an honest, God-fearing politician—when I think I see one. But I don’t expect them to change the world. That job is ours, church.
Think about it this way, as an extension of the Capitol Club dinner I mentioned above: Politically-speaking, you are one vote among many thousands choosing one representative among 435. And if that 1 out of 435 doesn’t have the power to make real political progress, then what power do you think trickles down to you?
You cannot leave the future of this world to the politicians. It is ours! Real power rises from within, comes from the Spirit, and originates with God.
Court rulings will never save innocent, unborn lives in the same way we can by changing the heart of a mother.
Votes will never feed the hungry or clothe the children in the same way our hands can when we meet them where they hurt and where they pray.
Laws will never give hope to the hopeless and breathe life into those crushed souls longing to leave this world in the same way a kind word and a loving embrace will make a difference in the course of a day.
And politicians cannot, no matter how grandiose the promises get, give life and conquer death in the same way breathing the Gospel into someone’s story will always do.
We must remember we are the church, the chosen, the representatives of God, the houses of the Holy Spirit, far above and beyond the mere fact of being a lone vote in a lost world.
My dad pains me when he gets so troubled by the world and triggered by politics and sends me a message so sorrowfully opining about the world he (really all of us) is leaving for his grandchildren.
But this is a marvelous world and a fantastic future, all resting in God’s hands! God never loses and all things work for His good and just and perfect plan!
I know, this doesn’t sound much like the sentiment of a cynic (as I introduced myself to you these many years ago now), but that is exactly the point. You cannot truly trust God and be cynical about the future. Oh, there is room for doubt and God’s big shoulders can carry our occasional disappointment I am sure.
I have committed to God that through even my own disappointment and doubt I will be an encourager. Someone needs to remind the world that “God’s got this!”
The world is in His hands and through the Gospel of Christ our hands are His. So join me in challenging those around you to BE the change and not merely vote for it, or grumble about it, or fight over it.
He has a plan and it is all about you.