Just one time I would like for a politician – any politician — to give me one good reason to vote for him or her because of a really good policy idea.
And the entire advertisement would be devoted to their really good ideas without a single mention of their opponent.
Is that too much to ask?
Maybe you’ve seen an advertisement like that, but I haven’t. It seems to me that almost every person seeking office is fixated on giving all the reasons why a vote for their opponent will cause the world to spin off its axis.
“My opponent is evil incarnate. He supports complete anarchy. She eats puppies for breakfast. Everything you are afraid of is absolutely guaranteed to happen if my opponent is elected. The world as we know it is over.”
As I am composing this post, election day is tomorrow. Thankfully, I have already cast my ballot through early voting so I won’t have to go stand in line. By the time you are reading this, we—hopefully mostly—know the outcome of the elections.
Some people are elated today with the election of their preferred candidates. The world has been saved!
Others are in mourning. They are thinking about where to hide or they are stockpiling resources for the coming apocalypse.
I remember a local radio sports personality from a few years back who referred to his Monday broadcast after Dallas Cowboys games on Sunday as “overreaction Monday.“
We are now in the immediate post-election overreaction phase, which is really nothing more than posturing and positioning and pontificating in preparation for the next election two years from now.
It’s a never-ending cycle of outrage and fear-mongering.
Here’s what I know for sure:
Regardless of who won or lost on the ballot, we are all losers. We’ve lost civility. We’ve lost respect. We’ve lost conversation. We’ve lost optimism. We’ve lost kindness. We’ve lost justice. We’ve lost vision.
All those things still exist in theory but only in severely diluted and corrupt forms where the rubber meets the road.
Have we passed the point of no return? Maybe.
Are you feeling encouraged yet? Amazing?
I don’t know how amazing I am feeling today myself.
And that’s actually the lesson. We are a little too fixated on how things make us feel.
Regardless of how I’m feeling on a particular day, I have not given up. In fact I refuse to give up.
Because my hope is not based on winning elections and getting my way, though I would certainly prefer both of those things.
My hope—and my amazing—is based on how I choose to live within the uncontrollable context in which I find myself.
Sometimes I have light bulb moments in the middle of conversations, when I say things in a way that I have never articulated them before.
In a conversation earlier today I said, “Bridges can only be built by people that are capable of building them. And I am capable.”
That doesn’t mean that I have more skills, it just means I’m not willing to give up on the power of God’s amazing love.
Join me?
Be amazing today, my friend.
