Vote For Me and I Will…
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for quite a while, you probably know that various elections for political offices are just a little over a week away. There is absolutely no way of knowing how much time and effort has gone into trying to persuade voters to cast a ballot for this or that candidate, this or that proposition, this or that amendment, etc.
According to one report I read, 9.3 billion dollars will be spent in this “election cycle” in an effort to garner votes. According to that same report, that staggering figure is the amount spent only on elections for offices on the federal level. It does not include the tons of money spent on state and local races, initiatives, etc.
Both candidates and voters can be divided into various categories. Of course, there is the obvious division between those who have a “D” after their name and those who have an “R” after theirs. Beyond that, there are differences in geography, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, and a host of other things.
I was thinking the other day about a division that is rarely, if ever, discussed. This division applies primarily to candidates for political office, but it also applies to the kind of “leadership” the voters are looking for.
Please understand that I do not have any particular candidates or political parties in mind as I make this observation. My observation/opinion cuts across party lines.
On one side of this divide are those candidates who figuratively wet their fingers and stick them up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. I guess that, more accurately, the modern equivalents of this are things like opinion polls, focus groups, etc. Either way, these candidates will tell prospective voters something like:
“Now that I know what you want, vote for me and I will do what you want me to do.”
On the other side of the divide would be those candidates who have some core principles. They may use some of the same “tools” as their opponents, but they use them to decide how to best articulate their message. They do not use them to decide what that message would be. They already know what the message is because the message reflects their own deeply held opinions and convictions. These candidates would tell prospective voters something like:
“Here is where I stand. If you agree with me, vote for me and let’s work together to accomplish our common goals.”
As I think about those two kinds of people, I cannot help but think of two men about whom we read in the New Testament. Pilate’s “leadership style” resulted in the death of Jesus. Even though he, himself, could “find no fault with” Jesus, he bowed to popular opinion. In so doing, he kept his position, but he forfeited any opportunity to be remembered as a truly great man.
The other man, John the baptist, was imprisoned and lost his own life because he held onto his convictions about who Jesus was and what God’s word had to say about marriage and morality. In the opinion of many, that may have been a foolish decision. The Lord disagreed, however. While John was still alive and before the establishment of the kingdom, Jesus said this about John:
…among those born of women none is greater than John… (Luke 7:28).
It is of interest to me that, in this same context, Jesus basically told people that, if they thought that John was “…a reed shaken by the wind…” (Luke 7:24), they were looking in the wrong place. What we read about John in the New Testament shows him to be a man of conviction and courage.
That is actually the “bottom line” of what I am thinking today. I may have started by writing about politics, but what I really have on my mind has much more to do with merely who holds what office in our government. What I have on my mind as I type these words has to do with what I believe to be a real need for people of conviction and courage in the various levels of our government. However, in my opinion, every segment of our society would benefit from people of conviction and courage.
Most of us have heard this expression or something very close to it: “The inmates are running the asylum.” Sadly, that describes the situation in far too many homes in which the children, not the parents, are in control. It is also the situation in far too many churches in which titles substitute for real leadership.
Both the home and the church have guidelines given to us by our Creator. Until and unless we follow His will with regard to leadership in both of these, it really won’t matter who holds various political offices. Our entire society will continue on the downward path it has been on for far too long.
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AUTHOR: Jim Faughn
