Resurrection 11a Politics and Headlights

[HKHaugan]

Resurrection 11a Politics and Headlights

Last year my car's headlights were dimming due to the pounding they get from driving through years of sand, dust and air pressure. I went to the car dealer and they put the headlight lenses through a cleaning process. They shone bright again. Our personal headlight is our relationship with the Lord Jesus. What can happen to His light in us is that it can dim if we let the cultural wars wear down the lenses He made in us to let Him shine through. Political wars can get us to lose our focus.

If you look at the major battles in politics it is not about facts, figures and issues. It's about people's perception. What do they perceive when they look at a possible political leader? In this country right now people make choices based on what they believe they are discerning in the different candidates, not on what the candidates are saying. This election is not about the mind. It's not about issues. It's about personal reality. It's about the heart. People are looking for an honest heart.

The word establishment is being used constantly to identify distrust of politicians and their attitudes. Distrust and anger greet every single candidate wherever they go. The political establishment is under fire by an angry populace. The hearts of people are upset with the shift from a world in relative control to one of unease through unsettled economics, personal and communal insecurity, Babylonic morality, loss of historic American identity, over aggressive governmental control, and fear underlying it all. Generally speaking the public has lost trust in the political system and has compromised its moral soul for the promise of peace, security and progress through politics.

Look at what we face. One party presents itself as the party of the people. It pledges human equality and economic freedom by the new tyranny of political correctness and the old intimidation of increased taxation. The party of self assumed diversity and liberalism offers only two candidates, both white, whose only diversity is that one is a middle class male career politician and the other a rich female bureaucrat. But that's it. Hypocrisy in the raw.

True or not, its opposition has been painted as the anti-diversity, socially and economically upper class counterpart. Supposedly it is the party of calm genteel deliberation. Say what? Reality? It presents candidates from every ethnic and social level of society and their public display looks like a dysfunctional family arguing over who will control the family business since the fading patriarch is leaving the kids to fight over the will. Hypocrisy knows no limits.

Both pictures may explain why the public is hitting the high anxiety level. Like it or not one candidate has brought this to a head. Being both self confident and boisterously aggressive he has plowed a swath through the casual boredom of traditional campaigning. He has exposed the fear of establishment leadership in both parties that has resonated with the fears resident in the general populace. Both parties are more concerned with getting and keeping power with tricky oratory than solving the issues that are rooted in the fears of the people they serve.

One side wants to make the country great again, the other counters with a soapy desire to make the country whole again. Neither is plausible nor accurate. The real secular goal for a nation is neither greatness nor wholeness but maintaining the constitutional principles that allow for every individual within it the freedom to achieve economic and social independence through setting and achieving goals. That's how greatness and wholeness are accomplished. Inside those goals is the real engine, the only engine, the historically proven engine that makes a country both great and whole and that is its spiritual foundation.

One has only to realize the biblical roots in its founding documents, to see where individual freedom is found. Clearly, it is a spiritual freedom promoted under a Judeo-Christian umbrella. It has nothing to do with whether or not the leaders were themselves ardent believers but rather it was their willingness to see and agree the Judeo-Christian moral foundation was the most secure one upon which to build a nation. It allowed for varying religious beliefs but always under the supervision of its authority. You are more secure when freedom is assured by a Judeo-Christian base. Compare any other moral system and they always end up denying individual freedom in economic, educational and social accomplishment.

The present governing authorities have crippled the economy and our political trust by subtly allowing intolerant multi-culturalism to replace biblical morality. Then any and all moral systems are valid. That new injection is the real poison in the body politic. This anti-democracy approach has weakened those in leadership to fear any and all who plead even the most absurd offense. Fear is what foreign interveners perceive as weakness and that weakness has opened our borders to illegal crossings and encouraged religious terrorists to try and destroy what we have built in order to turn us back into the dark ages of poverty and tyranny. This has been done by a political leadership more concerned with controlling and regulating the economic system in order to maintain personal power. The sabotage of every individual's unalienable rights has happened. All of this is what has been exposed in the massive reaction of a people who are sick and tired of political correctness nurtured by incorrect politicians plying 'fly-by-night' politics for personal gain. False tolerance is tolerance of fear.

Now what has all this got to do with faith, our faith, faith in the Lord Jesus? Remember early on in this writing I mentioned a candidate that came on like a volcano, boasting, seemingly ego bursting, going after the country's political leadership, the political establishment?

Never mind the name. It's the dynamic of the situation that needs notice.

The dynamic, the way, the method is a person steps forward and challenges the hypocrisy of the day. He is unafraid and speaks his mind. He is in the middle of a two party political system, neither of which delivers on their promises. Both parties are filled with self protecting power holders. The people are divided, oppressed, depressed and political correctness is the order of the day. Taxation has burdened the people who have to support a foreign government as well as their own. The local governing authorities have compromised their nation with multi-cultural and external political agreements. They live every day fearing for their survival while they try and hold together an unhappy populace. The spirit of fear reigns. This outspoken person emerges and promises the beaten down people a new life, the return of former greatness and the elimination of the oppressive powers that rule them.

It's not about issues, it's about a person with fearless determination. This is why we have the magnificent opportunity to share our testimony about Jesus. He is that Person of fearless determination. He is the Man of the hour, the Heart Man.

We have been given a gift of a lifetime in this political atmosphere to be witnesses to the Lord Jesus. We are in a political time that is ripe for sharing our testimony. What I have just described above is similar to the emergence of Jesus in the midst of a frustrated, hopeless, fear filled and angry populace 2000 years ago. See what I mean? What an opportunity to compare the dynamics involved and shift the conversation to the One who saves not only our personal lives but, through changed hearts, saves a nation and the world. Jesus came into the middle of a two party system, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Political intrigue ruled the day and the spirit of fear ruled the intrigue. Foreign entanglements, trade agreements and politicized taxation were kept complicated by lawyers on purpose. Only they understood the system and held their power by keeping the people ignorant and dependent on them.

Again it is the dynamics of the situation minus the names involved that we need to get a hold of. I hope you see where I'm going with this. “What we have here is a problem of communication.” “What we need is a bigger boat.” Suppose we are in a conversation with someone about the present political situation. Are we going to let our personal opinions and ideas about the political situation govern the moment? Or, will we keep the focus of our faith, the Lord Jesus, and let Him capture the moment? This is what disciples of Jesus are all about. He is our purpose for being.

The Bible has all this intrigue stuff locked in its pages ready to be shared with whoever brings up the present turmoil. What we are going through is all old stuff. The Old Testament is loaded with stories of kings' corruptions. But Jesus comes as the one who exposes the real problem of sin which is the frightened human hearts, both in leadership and in the general public. Shift the conversation from politics to where each of us as human beings, images of God, live our daily reality. Don't let the anxieties that drive the political world bring division and dissension into our minds and hearts. That's when the spirit of fear takes over. That's when anger, pride and opinion shut out our light and our salt loses its flavor (Mt.5:13-16). Use the present situation as a way to show no human candidate can do what Jesus does. It's not the external political situation that is in need but the individual human heart. The political situation is just a symptom.

What did Jesus do, say and act upon when He found Himself in the same cultural, social, economic and political circumstance? He pointed to His Father, trusted Him and became the One the Father said we must pay attention to. There is no circumstance in any area of life that the Lord cannot influence and bring us through. We are always in the midst of people, both believers and non-believers who need their minds, hearts and spirits mended. That's His message from the Cross. He died to make the point He is the real way, the real truth and the real life (Jn.14:6).

Our first responsibility as citizens is to keep our 'Headlight', the Lord Jesus, as our clear focus and pray. The second is to testify. The third is to vote. The Lord handles the rest. Personal needs, relational needs and communal needs are met. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you (Mt.6:33).” That's what the people of the Resurrection do.