The Results Are In, Now What?

Due to the U.S. 2016 elections this week, I interrupt my  series “Loved Like No Other” to post a special message, “The Results Are In Now What? ”  I am inserting this message which goes along with one of my previous posts, as a reminder for  “We the People” to be “The People“.  Let’s get started.

Some voted for values
Pamela and I discussed a lot leading up to the election.  One of the topics had to do with a phrase we heard churches use, “#VoteYourValues”.  When I heard this statement, I thought this was a good thing especially since this is a nation whose pledge of allegiance says in “God we trust”.  #VoteYourValues for me meant we should vote for the candidate who demonstrates and promotes the values we believe have been set by our Lord, Jesus Christ.  So I thought.

Contrary to my naive thinking, Pamela opened my eyes and shared that the phrase #VoteYourValues for a lot of folks means voting along party lines even if you don’t agree with the candidate.  Now I’m confused.  How in the world could this be?!

Under any other normal circumstances, we’d vote for the person on the ballot, but not this time.  We’ve been encouraged to vote for the party who has our values.  Something seems a little off.  [To the left]. Did you know not one time did we hear you should seek God’s advice on who we should vote for?  Nor did we hear, vote for who God tells you to vote.  Instead, we made party lines a way to not only separate people, but the church.

So here’s an interesting question.  If the church is to vote for its values and half the church voted for Hillary Clinton (Democrat) and half voted for President-Elect Donald Trump (Republican), then does this mean the church doesn’t know its values or God’s values?

Vote your values?   What values?!
Many churches started socializing #VoteBiblicalValues.  Here’s where it gets complicated.  Do you vote for how the Bible teaches us to live which is uncommon to normal people?  That means the majority know very little about what the Bible has to say anyway.  Or do you vote in alignment with how Jesus taught us to live, accepting others and forgiving all, which again is uncommon?  I encourage you to do a little digging into each party’s history and their values.  I bet you would be surprised to find things that align and things that don’t align with the Bible in both parties.

Whose values are off?
What does it mean when Christians, followers of Christ, are split between parties?  To me this sends a very bad picture of The Church.  Even the church doesn’t know what values to vote for.  Then how in the world can the people get it right?   I think this term “vote your values” is a way for people to hide behind the truth of how they really want to vote, yet save face in the eyes of people.  This isn’t new.  To combat this, we taught our daughter (in her 4th grade class voting) to be bold and reminded her that she has a right to vote for whoever she believes in and to be bold enough to stand behind her vote. You see when Jesus was crucified, the people had to vote.  Most voted to crucify him and some went along with it because it was the common thing to do.  That means the church voted to crucify Him.  Today we are still casting our votes.  Will you stand for Him or will you continue to hide behind phrases like “vote your values” because you’re afraid to let others know you vote for Christ?  Be bold, be courageous, be like Christ, be uncommon!

Now what are we to do?
Values?  Here’s what we are going to do.  Just like with the transition of authority from Pres. George W. Bush to Pres. Barrack Obama, we will accept our new president.  This is a Biblical value.  We will begin praying for our new government, cabinet and offices.  We will stop the negative talk against President-elect Trump and we will start to promote him.  Why?  Because that’s not normal.  Because it’s uncommon.  Because it’s what Christians do!

What are you going to do now that the results are in?  Leave me a comment.