Let’s Talk About What’s Really Wrong with Our Elections

I’ll vote on November 8, but I’ll pray more.

We’re less than two weeks away from the midterm elections. To say that the cable shows are obsessed with what’s coming down the pike would be an understatement. 

You’d think I’d be used to it by now. Since I first began to think about the implications of politics some 40 years ago, I’ve followed the bloodbath of politics as it plays out every two years. It’s a brutal sport, I’m afraid.

As I listen to the rhetoric of the politicians and the pundits, it occurs to me that what they’re promising is some sort of redemption. As in, “Vote for me, and I’ll make things right again.” The problem with this appeal is that it rarely, if ever, addresses the things that are broken. Fix the border! Protect a woman’s right to choose! Protect the rights of the unborn! Inflation is too high! Let’s not talk about inflation!

I would be thrilled if just once a politician would say something like, “We are in great peril in this country, but there isn’t anything we can do to stem the tide of our national decline until we bow down before the Almighty.” I could get excited about a politician who said that because I would know that he or she is someone who really gets it. They get the problem, and they get the solution. They know that godly people in public office do the right thing on borders, abortion, and the economy.

Instead, this crowd is obsessed with power. They covet it like it’s their next breath of fresh air. And in the process of striving for it, they make promises they can never keep. They fail because they are only looking in the mirror and then at other human beings. They fail because they refuse to look upward.

The Israelites were a lot like us. They knew God too, until they didn’t anymore.  They had a bad habit of cycling in and out of faith. Throughout their history, they alternated between faithfulness and rebellion. So God laid out a principle that could lead to their salvation. It was specific to the Jews but has meaning for America in 2022:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

—2 Chronicles 7:14

There it was, right before their eyes. The fix! The solution! And it’s before our eyes too. Humility! Prayer! Seek God’s face! Turn away from wickedness! And what would be the result of a nation like Israel (or ours) repenting in this way? We would have God’s ear. We would have forgiveness, and we would have healing.

I hear these people talk, and I wonder if they’re living in the same America I live in. They’re all pointing fingers at one another as if to say, “You are what’s wrong with our nation; therefore, people should vote for me!” Unfortunately, things don’t get better.

Yes, there’s a lot of that going on. What we don’t see a lot of is the kind of repentance that God instructed Israel to demonstrate. Not a lot of inward self-examination. Instead, it’s all finger pointing. But national repentance begins with individuals, with the average guy on the street. We can’t wait for our leaders to usher in a new era of revival because our “leaders” are only a reflection of who we are.

I’ll vote on November 8, but I’ll pray more. I’ll state my political opinion, but I’ll preach Jesus more because our spiritual problem is the root of our political problem. 

I pray that America repents before it’s too late. I do love my country, but I love the Kingdom of God more. I love God more! I love the eternal well-being of my fellow man more.

Look upward, America.