Functional Atheism

               “Ultimately, it doesn’t matter who wins the election.  I know where my hope is – it is in God.”  “I’ve read the back of the book and we win.”

               

                These are all both great statements, aren’t they? So why am I feeling so despondent after my man didn’t win? Problem is, they’re just words; well meaning, well intentioned, very Christian words.  But I don’t really believe them.  “What??  What do you mean you don’t believe them,” you ask?  I mean, God has used this election to reveal something to me about my heart. 

               

                The Radford’s and the Tate’s gathered together at the Radford’s house on November 6^th around 8:30 pm so we could watch the election together.  We played a few games and then watched CNN for a little while before going to sleep.  The plan was to wake up around 4:00am and watch the election results unfold.  We had a lot of nervousness about the election, but also a lot of hope.  Like many others, we were very angered and upset about the direction our country had taken the last four years; abortion on the rise, homosexual marriage becoming more and more accepted, legislation being passed against the will of the majority of the people…the list could go on, and on, and on, and on, and on…well, you get the picture.  We had all done our civic duty and sent in our absentee ballots, voting for the man we believed would better get our country back on the right track - voting against the man we knew was taking our country down the wrong track. We were nervous, but hopeful.

               

                That hope quickly died.  We held on to it as long as possible – probably longer.  By 10:00am our time (2am EST) our hopes for our country were dashed, and it was obvious that our nation had made a choice – a choice to turn away from its history of freedom knit together with personal responsibility; a choice to fill their bellies with what they might be able to get from people who have more than they do; a choice to take rather than to give; a choice to take the road of economic failure and moral decline.  I felt ashamed of my country and my countrymen.

               

                The mood at the Radford’s house was somber and quiet.  Nobody felt much like conversing, and Roger and I didn’t feeling like hanging around, so the Tate’s returned home to lick their wounds.  I have struggled with despondency ever since.

                This morning, I found myself asking the same question as David, the King of Israel, asked in Psalm 42:5: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?” Why do I feel like hope has died?

               

                Have you ever read the book of Habakkuk?  Habakkuk was a prophet of God who lived during very troubling times in Judah before the time of Christ.  God revealed to Habakkuk that He was going to punish Israel severely for her immorality and for turning her back on Him.  Punishment, Habakkuk could understand to a certain degree, but the total destruction of his nation that God told him would come at the hands of their worst enemies in the region, Habakkuk couldn’t fathom.  He questioned God’s integrity and faithfulness to His promises.  He questioned God’s lack of mercy.  He questioned God’s wisdom and goodness.  How, Habakkuk asked God, can you punish your people using a people who are far more ungodly than we are?  How can you decimate your people with whom you have sworn a blood covenant?  Habakkuk was confused, disquieted, despondent, and I think a little angry.  Until…God spoke to Him and showed him what it meant to live his life according to his faith in God.  Habakkuk surrendered to God’s will and embraced his true source of hope and life…God Himself.  And this was the whole point.

               

                Hope.  This, God has shown me over the last two days, is another worship word.  In thinking about spiritual adultery that we commit as Christians, I’ve often thought in terms of love, treasure, pursuit.  Questions like, “what do I love more than God,” or, “what do I put before God in my life,” or, “what would I be angry about if God took it away.” These are all typical x-ray questions for examining a heart of idolatry. Today, God showed me that my idolatry sometimes shows itself in the word HOPE.  When David asked himself the question about why his soul was cast down – why he was…depressed…despondent, his rebuke and encouragement to himself was to HOPE in God.  In other words, he was despondent because he hadn’t been hoping in God.  He’d been hoping in something else, and that something else had failed him.  My hope has often been in having the right political party in office, the right laws on the books, and the right people in Congress.  Oh, I would have said my hope was ultimately in God…but my despondency shows me otherwise, because when I ask myself David’s question…my soul, why are you cast down, the answer is instructive to where my hope is. 

               

                The day before the election, I prayed that God would put in as President whichever man would cause God’s people to pursue Him and His Kingdom.  I believe that God has answered that prayer.   If my health, wealth, and political power are stripped away from me, maybe I will see more clearly where my hope truly needs to be.  Maybe God is revealing to many of us who call on His name, that we have been misplacing our worship in ways we didn’t realize – hoping in something more than we hope in Him.  Maybe this will bring about repentance and renewed love and allegiance to something outside ourselves – something outside of our heritage – something outside of our country.  Maybe we’ve been worshipping these things and trying to hold onto them.  Maybe they have become our gods.  Maybe we need to get to the business of focusing our energies on the Kingdom of Heaven rather than the kingdom of America.

               

                Please don’t get me wrong.  I love my country; I appreciate and am thankful for the Christian heritage (yes, Christian heritage no matter what the newly written history books have to say)we have been blessed with,  and I will continue to have political opinions on her direction for the sake of her good.  But, oh, God, this is where my hope has been placed for far too long – way more than I realized.  Awaken me, Lord.  What folly it is to think that the spread of Your Kingdom depends on the state of America.  Forgive me.

                Now, nobody say to any sad American, “It’s done, get over it,” especially if you are not American.  There are a lot of ramifications to this election.  Allow us time to grieve.  Because though I do not want to worship my country, I do love my country, and I should be grieved at the path my people are taking as it is a path away from Christ.  It is a right and righteous grief.

                But let us do get on with the work of the Kingdom – yes, let us vote and work in the government and fight for justice in the political arena.  But more than that, let us hope in the Lord for the work and the growth of His Kingdom.  Let us love one another, love our neighbors, care for the widows and orphans, keep ourselves unspotted from sin – and do the work of sharing Jesus Christ and His Kingdom with all who are around us.