In a recent devotion by Richard Rohr, he points out that to say "Jesus is Lord" was a political statement when Rome was in power because Caesar was the one who was to be called "lord." While we are not required to say the same thing about our president, the furor that accompanies the presidential race would make one think that it is of the same magnitude as picking who will be our lord. Is the authority for my life the one who lives in the White House?
Maybe the stir is because we want to belong to the winning candidate. We don't like to lose, and some act as though the loss of "their" candidate is the end of the world, as if God was watching for just the right (read "wrong") person to get elected so God could throw the switch on the end of time.
To me that shows how inflated our national ego really is. Some act as though our nation is the only nation that matters in all of time (the U.S. is only 235 years old). When we do this, we act like small children who thing the world revolves around them alone.
I have to think that God is shaking God's head at the fervor with which some view election season. I wonder if it grieves God that we view the source of all power as a flawed human being rather than the Creator of the universe.
What really matters is not who is elected president, but how we will live as followers of Jesus Christ. It is Christ to whom I belong, not some person running for office. They are only temporary, a puff of wind, just as I am. If I will do what Jesus did, then who is president really won't matter to me, for I am living in God's Kingdom (to which, by the way, the United States does not have exclusive rights).
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