What happens inside of you when I say the following words: Politics, Republican, Democrat, Trump, Biden? If you are like me, my stomach gets into a little knot, my shoulders start to tense up and rise to my ears, and it gets a little harder to breathe. That is called a visceral reaction. Our emotions cause our bodies to change. This is Unrest.
With elections coming up, I really needed to have a concrete plan in place to help me out of this type of stronghold. So here’s my plan…
Reading through the Old Testament this summer has led to a greater understanding of God’s character from the very beginning. His design is to be the one in charge. He spoke and there was light, the wind and waves obey His whisper, He breathed and created man and woman in His image. But as humans with God-given freewill to make our own choices, our sin and imperfections can also turn us into complainers (especially about other imperfect people). This is not just a 2020 problem. It was the same way with His “Chosen” people of Israel. In their complaining, they wished for a king. God knew this wouldn’t solve their problems but went ahead and gave them what they wanted.
Did having a king fix everything? Of course not, because he was not perfect.
Are we so much like the Israelites that we actually think the winner of this upcoming election has the chance to fix everything? I hope not. We cannot ever expect our President and politicians to fix everything because They Are Not God. What happens in politics is perpetual negativity. Republicans blame everything terrible in the world on Democrats and Democrats hate everything that Trump says and Republicans stand for. Does anyone ever take a second to look at what good comes out of either party? How refreshing would that be? What would happen if someone from the opposite party said, “Hey, I like what you did there. That really helped our country.” I’m not holding my breath for that to happen.
So I am writing this to bring eternal perspective back to my unsettled mind when I hear any of the words that I mentioned earlier.
Would you agree that our bodies perform best when we have peace, hope and rest? Hmmm, peace, hope and rest are the opposite of what I get when trying to understand how we got to where we are in the USA. However, I do find Peace, Hope and Rest abundantly when I come to the Father and Him alone. So if I can remember to take a deep breath and re-focus my eyes on Christ in these moments of internal chaos, I can help be part of the solution. Do you realize that? You are part of the solution too. How we respond in moments of political unrest can change our nation. If we join in the arguing and complaining, that does nothing to help move us forward. Instead, we can be the ones to talk about the positives, or completely change the subject by sharing something amazing that God has done in our life lately or revealed in His word.
Do what it takes to get back to the state of peace, hope and rest. Then we can be the ones to make the change and stop looking at others to do it for us.
