As I write this it is Election Day and I am struggling to maintain my angst and frustration.
Leading up to this day I have interviewed a few people on the radio who have talked about how there are said to be millions of Christians who don’t bother to vote. This fact drives me crazy. I will never understand that choice and the fact that fellow believers are making it gives me the unmistakable feeling of being out on the front lines and glancing around me only to find out I am here alone.
Now, am I really out here alone? No.
Am I even really on the frontlines? Not really, not compared to so many others. I’m just voting, it’s not even like I’m running for office.
Have there been times I haven’t voted? Yes, once, because I wasn’t physically able to get back to my hometown to vote. But, when people live right down the street from their polling place and they don’t have to fight their way through some sort of militia to get there, I don’t understand how they can avoid doing something so easy. Especially because there have been and are people who have fought and died for the right to vote. They’ve sacrificed to make it easy for us, and some people are just like…, “Nah, no thanks.”
I’m not delusional, I know that one vote in a sea of millions can seem futile. But that’s how so many things in life work which are still worth doing. One step may seem futile, but without a bunch of single steps we wouldn’t be able to walk anywhere. One hour of work may seem like barely a drop in the bucket towards paying your bills, but without every single ‘one hour’ you’d have nothing at the end of the month. You can’t create a ‘bunch’ without a bunch of ‘ones’.
I also know that many people are skeptical about our votes being fairly counted. I too am skeptical about that. But, if they aren’t, then me voting doesn’t hurt anything and at least I tried. However, if they are counted fairly and I didn’t vote, then I messed up. So, the better gamble is to do what is in my power and vote.
Alas, I know people won’t be able to read this in time for me to try to convince them to vote in this election, so that is not why I am writing this.
“I am writing this for anyone who feels like their soul is being crushed by the people they expected to help them fight these battles but who have instead decided to turn a blind eye to them.”
Instead, I am writing this for anyone out there who is struggling with the same thing I am at the moment. Anyone who knows people they care about who for some reason couldn’t be bothered to care enough to go cast a simple vote against the horrors which keep us up at night. Anyone who has that same churning in their stomach that they’ve come to associate with the desperation for people to just understand the importance of some things in this world. Anyone who feels like their soul is being crushed by the people they expected to help them fight these battles but who have instead decided to turn a blind eye to them.
What if that person causing this distress is your friend, your sibling, your parent, or even your spouse? Maybe you can’t help but think, “I don’t think I’d have married them if I knew they wouldn’t care about these things that are vitally important to our way of life.” Or, “I’d rather skip family get-togethers than have to pretend like I’m not bothered by my siblings’ indifference.”
To you, my fellow ball of distress, I say the same thing God so aptly made sure I heard this morning on the radio during the Focus on the Family Minute:
“You didn’t marry the wrong person, you’re looking in the wrong place. You’re trying to find life from a person, from a job, from an amount of money, it’s never going to satisfy you. You have to look vertical, that’s the whole point. Look to God instead of your spouse to find fulfillment.”
God is still there, look to him instead of your spouse, your parent, your sibling, your friend.
At least for me, a huge part of that twisting in my gut is the fear of being alone in an important fight. The fear of feeling like I am screaming into a void and no one is there to hear or to care. The fear of looking to my left and right and finding out I am all alone…but I shouldn’t be looking left or right, I should be looking vertical. I should be looking to God, because God is always there.
Slowly, as I am reminded of that truth, the churning in my gut always begins to settle. The angst against people I love begins to fade. And the fear which was threatening to engulf me, disappears.
As God reminds us in Psalm 46:10 (NIV), “Be still, and know that I am God.”
Everyone is on their own journey, facing their own struggles, and growing at their own pace. Let’s give the people we love–and even those we only kind of like a little–the benefit of the doubt.
Yes, talk to them about the important things, about how you feel about their indifference, about how you wish you had their support, but do it from a place of love, not fear or anger. After all, it’s not them who will guide the course of history, that task is God’s alone.
I’m going to sign off for now, but I want to leave you with this: when I’m feeling really angsty about world events I take a moment to read Job 38 to be reminded of just how awe inspiring and powerful God is, and it puts my mind back in its safe little place under God’s “wing”.
Here’s just a little snippet of it to get you started:
Job 38:4 (NLT), “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, then, if you know so much.”
This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”
Click here for more things written or transcribed by Amanda Hovseth.