In the few days since the Presidential election wrapped up (Nov2024), I’ve been thinking about the cultural response and the way of Jesus. I definitely have a lot of thoughts, but I’ll limit myself to one observation and two quotations!
So, here’s the observation: I find it interesting how much of the monologues (not dialogue because that would mean a two-way conversation in which each party listens and responds) portrayed this election as an existential crisis. My undergraduate degree focused on the history of the American Civil War. As such, I often wondered what it would have been like to live through the 1860 or 1864 elections. Abraham Lincoln was elected President on November 6, 1860. One month later, South Carolina seceded from the United States eventually bringing 12 other states with it. That chain of events led to a 5 year full spectrum conflict spanning Georgia to Pennsylvania that cost 1.5 million American lives. As a percentage, that would equate to about 10 million people. All that to say, that’s one moment in the relatively brief American history that was decidedly worse than anything we’re facing now. Don’t let the media (social or otherwise) inform your perception of reality too much.
I was reminded of this great line from GK Chesterton. It is often an encouragement to me to focus on the only lives that I have some degree of control over: “The greatest political storm flutters only a fringe of humanity. But an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children literally alter the destiny of nations.” Never underestimate the power of an ordinary life lived with intention and purpose to the glory of God!
And finally, I was struck in my scripture reading this week by an otherwise innocuous line from Luke’s Gospel (Luke 3v1-2):
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
Kings, governors, tetrarchs, oligarchs, high-priests, Presidents…they all come and go. And they have for all of human history. Kingdoms have risen and fallen. Empires have expanded and contracted. Nations have been born and died. But the Word of the Lord endures and the Kingdom of God is unshakeable. Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords…not as a title (per se) but as a statement of reality. In the end, if you’re with him and seeking him and pursuing him, everything will work out for a greater good than you can imagine.
Stephen
Stephen and Wendy are planting Inspire missional communities called ‘Houses of Healing’ in TN, USA’. Read more news and stories from the Hopkins HERE. Listen to the podcast HERE. Support Stephen and Wendy HERE.
