Tomorrow my husband and I are going to the polls to choose between two political candidates. November 6th will be after baby girl is born, and I’m thinking that I will not want know how to take my week old baby to wait in long lines at the polling place. So we’re voting early.
As I write this post there’s a secret I need to tell you about myself, first, that you are most likely not aware of, even if you know me personally. I am a very opinionated person.
Yep, that’s right. I pretty much have any opinion about everything. However, I like to call them convictions rather than opinions.
My husband knows this really well and a few of my closest friends know this, too. But as for everyone else and all of you, I hide this part of myself – for the most part. And to tell you the truth it’s so you will like me.
I want to be liked. Probably more than I should want to be liked. That’s another secret about myself.
In my mind, though, there is a constant struggle of how much to say about my beliefs on controversial subjects and how much to hide. I see both sides of the argument, and I rarely know which one to choose.
On one hand I think that the world needs more Christians to verbalize truth. Notice I said truth, not religious dogma but what the Bible actually says in all its analysis and contexts.
“Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.” Ephesians 4:15 (NLT)
Then on the other hand I am conscious of creating barriers between people. I am also aware that the only way to understand truth is through the Holy Spirit. In that case, what’s the point?
“The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, or, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 (TNIV)
Jesus was perfect at verbalizing truth, poignantly and without excuse, but with compassion and love. And He didn’t care what others thought of Him. I strive to be like Him.
As this political season is well under way I feel a little better among the equally opinionated people out there on Facebook and Twitter even though I am typically just a spectator.
There are opinions about all kinds of issues from the economy to foreign affairs to the environment and taxes and healthcare. And then there’s the social issues. You know the ones that really get people’s blood boiling like abortion and gay rights.
Truthfully all of these issues are very important. They all have the potential to affect our lives in one way or another.
But as I synthesize all the views and promises and opinions of the political candidates I keep asking myself one question.
This {issue} may affect our lives now, but will it affect eternity?
This question has become my litmus test for deciding what is most important and who to vote for.
Sure, we need to eat. We have to have jobs. We must pay taxes. We want to be safe. We hope to stay healthy. But at the end of the day all of this is going away. Money. Government. Safety. Health. Even the earth. All of these things are temporal.
The only thing that remains, forever, is the soul.
The social issues are the matters of the soul.
There is not a political candidate who is perfect on all matters of the soul simply because there is not a political candidate who is perfect. This world is corrupted by the here-and-now, not the things that will last, and that goes for all of us who live in it.
However, as I make my final decision of whom to vote for I have to look at the soul issues, the social issues, first. These are the issues that deal with people from the inside.
Then, I have to ask myself what the Bible says about each of these social issues and which political candidate most aligns with that truth. No, not perfectly. There is no perfect. But mostly.
How do you choose who to vote for? What’s your litmus test?
It’s o.k. Go ahead. Share your opinion in the comments! You’re among opinion conviction speakers!
Tomorrow is the first Prayer Blackout where bloggers and readers across the web take a break for a Prayer Revival!
Tomorrow we shutting down our sites and praying for our president and our nation.
Will you join us?
If you’re a blogger or website owner, find all the details here and link-up today at Christian Mommy Blogger.
