The following article was published in the Arthur Graphic-Clarion in
October 2012.

Next Tuesday our country will be having a Presidential election in case you haven’t heard by now.  Many of us will be glad when all of the ads, emails, and facebook posts about the election finally calm down and allow our blood pressure to level out.  But as Christians in a free country we should be thankful that we have the privilege to vote, even if it doesn’t always turn out the way we had hoped for.

I recently read how many things in history would have been different if it had not been for just one vote.  One vote made Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and gave him control of England in 1645.  One vote caused Charles I to be executed in 1649.  One vote kept Aaron Burr – later charged with treason – from becoming President in 1800.  One vote elected Marcus Morton governor of Massachusetts in 1839.  One vote made Texas part of the United States in 1845.  One vote saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment in 1868, and one vote made Adolf Hitler head of the Nazi Party in 1923.  Despite your passion or lack of it for politics it is important to exercise your right and your freedom to vote next Tuesday.  Many people in the world still wish that they had that freedom.

With that said, we must also keep things in perspective.  God is still in control no matter who wins any of the elections!  In Ephesians 3:20-21 the apostle Paul reminds us of this when he writes, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”  God is the one who can do what is immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, and it is to him that we should pray and make our hopes and desires known!

When we vote it should be bathed in prayer, in our faith, in God’s Word, and in the example that Jesus taught in the New Testament.  That way when we leave the voting booth we can be confident that despite the “choice of the people” our choice as Christians will always be to proclaim that God is in control and Jesus is Lord.

The prophet Jeremiah gives us great council in the Old Testament when it comes to these types of things.  He was remembering the big picture as he saw Jerusalem under attack and the people being exiled.  He says, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)  And to that we can all say, Amen!

Pastor Glen Rhodes

Arthur Mennonite Church