The most important election in your lifetime?

Tomorrow is the most important election of your lifetime.

That must be true. Donald Trump, Cory Booker and Barack Obama have all said so in the last few days. Candidates –  and those pounding their drums – have all been saying so. It must be true.

Run the clock back to this same date, in 2016. Two years ago, it was the most important election of your lifetime. Proof: Franklin Graham and Hillary Clinton said so. It must have been true.

If you slept through 2016 – and wishing you could get some sleep right now – you could think you were having a déjà vu moment: in 2012, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Jon Huntsman, Bill O’Reilly and Newt Gingrich – among others – were hitting the same talking point. “The most important election of your lifetime…” Wow; what a momentous occasion! Should you take the day off to drink it all in?

Run history’s clock back 3000 years: the Jews had been living in the Promised Land for 400 years. Their nation was not perfect – they were still living in a fallen world, awaiting their Messiah – but their government was simple. Jehovah was their King; their Law had been delivered, in writing, through Moses. Their human leaders were judges – one at a time – who represented the King in oversight of the people as they administered justice by applying the Law to life. Heaven on Earth: no elections…

They couldn’t leave well-enough alone. The other nations had kings (with palaces and taxes, and abuses of power, and privileged progeny who believed themselves to be gods and goddesses); envy overtook them. They appealed to their invisible King for a human king, so they could fit-in…

God answered their prayers. “They ran and brought him out, and as he stood among the people he was a head taller than any of the others. Samuel said to all the people, ‘Do you see the man the Lord has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.’ Then the people shouted, ‘Long live the king!’ Samuel explained to the people the rights and duties of kingship. He wrote them down on a scroll and deposited it before the Lord. Then Samuel dismissed the people to go to their own homes.” (1 Samuel 10:23-25). God chose their king: it was Saul…

Who picked him? The story continues: “Now here is the king you have chosen, the one you asked for; see, the Lord has set a king over you. If you fear the Lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God – good!” (1 Samuel 12:13-14). God chose Saul… and they chose him. Popular ballots put him in office, but God had chosen him before the people weighed-in. That’s Sovereignty in action: God is in control.

That’s the way it will work, tomorrow. God has already determined the outcomes… but we’ll cast our ballots to play our part in the drama of history (a chronicle that has already been published in Heaven, with the final chapters – which reside in our future – already printed).

Here’s a bit of perspective: tomorrow is the most important election in your… week. Do your part and vote. Then, go home… and be at peace. God has already orchestrated the outcomes.

What was the most important election in your lifetime? It was the one when God elected you to be part of his forever family, waiting to join him in his eternal Kingdom. Listen to the way Peter described you and me: “To God’s elect… who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (1 Peter 1:1-3).

From one election winner to another,

Bob Shank