St. Timothy Lutheran Church

As I write this, millions of people, record numbers in fact, are swarming to the polls, eager to play their roles in deciding who will lead our nation for the next four years.  As is the case every election year, there are camps of people who are thrilled at the prospects of finally having in the oval office the messiah we've been waiting for, and other camps who are looking at real estate prices in New Zealand in case the Dreaded One is proven to have had the better marketing campaign. 

Things change when a new leader is placed in charge, and so we we cast our votes either in favor of the changes promised by one leader, or in protest of the changes threatened by the other.  We have our little say in how the world will be, and we feel a sense of satisfaction at living responsibly and exercising our freedom to choose, and we're filled with gratitude as we think about living in a country in which every taxpayer (or even non-taxpayers) can influence how things will be, and so election day becomes a celebration of liberty and freedom, of the power of the people. 

Bigger than the vote that we cast on election day is the vote we cast every day for how the world will be through the choices we make.  Author Don Miller writes in Blue Like Jazz about being present at an anti-Bush protest at a college in Seattle.  He was there to support the cause of the protest, but as he listened to the slogans being shouted and read the signs being brandished, a little voice went off in his head, and it said "The problem is me."  We make choices every single day, and those choices affect how the world is.  They bring about change, either good or bad.  For us who are followers of God, in addition to the power we wield through our actions and words, we have access to the power of prayer, against which the power of a mere president is absolutely nothing, and through which we call down the very Kingdom of Heaven. 

What kind of a country are you voting for?  What kinds of change are you looking for?  In what ways do you demonstrate that you really do have faith in the power of God?  Do you believe that God really does listen to your prayers or work through your faith and obedience to bring about actual change?