Happy there’s-a-better-way Saturday, friends.
I’m beginning today with a warning and a confession.
The warning: this Saturday pondering may be longer than average.
The confession: I’m exhausted.
Not physically—my health is good, I sleep well at night, and I’m pretty much able to do anything I need and/or want to do.
Not mentally—I’m thinking clearly (most of the time), I’m able to to focus on what matters, and I’m reading and listening to things that keep me intellectually stimulated and engaged.
It’s the spiritual and emotional exhaustion that wears me out—but that needs some clarification.
At my core and with my relationship with Jesus, and my core relationships with those closest to me, all is well. I love my job, my church, my family, my life.
And Jesus. I really love Jesus.
But, dadgummit, the American political climate we are trying to navigate as followers of Jesus sometimes makes me feel like I’ve fallen into a septic tank and the only solutions being offered are to swim over to one side or the other.
Guess what—it’s still a septic tank on the other side!
IT’S. NOT. OK.
I write this today TO my brothers and sisters who are trying to follow Jesus.
I write this today FOR my brothers and sisters in the human race who are not yet convinced about following Jesus, but they are watching those of us who say we are.
We’ve been deceived.
Ok. It happens.
But once we’ve been exposed to the truth, we have a choice to make, and failing to choose the right way makes us complicit in perpetuating the wrong ways.
I’ve had a mental image percolating for awhile. Today, I used AI to create it to illustrate the point I want to make.
There is no such thing as a perfect illustration, so bear with me.
I don’t know anyone who wakes up in the morning and says, “I’d like to be as miserable as possible today, so I’m going to try to create and experience the fullness of misery.”
We can stipulate the existence of that pathology, but I’ve not experienced anyone like that.
Most people have an idea of the world they wish to live in, the way they want their communities to look, their preferred environment, their ideal lifestyle.
Here’s where the political landscape comes into play.
We’re promised that those things can only be found by going through the correct door.
The blue door on the left or the red door on the right.
Both doors make outlandish promises about their own door that they cannot keep and bend over backwards to excuse the faults of their own people (they are “flawed” and “imperfect”).
Both doors make outlandish accusations about the opposite door that are not based in objective truth and assign the absolute worst motives to the other side (they are “evil” or even “satanic”).
Both doors are more concerned with winning followers and gaining control than with creating flourishing communities.
In fact, if you want to be accepted behind one door, you must be prepared to reject everything and everyone that is behind the other door.
Behind each door, there are some things that are true, but neither door is the pathway to truth.
And that’s really my point today.
I’m not assigning equivalence and saying there’s really no difference.
I AM saying that they are equally deficient in the most important way.
Neither of them is the Way OF Jesus and neither of them is the way TO Jesus.
That’s the center door.
The center door is not a compromise between the two. It’s not purple—a blend of some red and some blue.
It’s a separate way.
It’s the Jesus way of viewing things that are red and things that are blue.
It’s the way to the life we were made for.
But it is the way that must be chosen.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Jesus – Matthew 7:13-14).
“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to” (Jesus – Luke 13:24).
Yikes!
Two things that will keep you from that door:
Your refusal to enter, and your belief that you can get there through a different door.
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jesus – John 14:6).
“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (Jesus – John 10:9-10).
Let me be clear, so no one misses my point:
Neither the blue door nor the red door leads to the way of Jesus.
And the way of Jesus does not lead anyone to choose red or blue as their identity. There are no red Jesus followers or blue Jesus followers.
The way of Jesus leads us to singularity in our praise: The immortal, invisible, only wise God.
The way of Jesus allows no excuses for ourselves or our team.
The way of Jesus allows us to affirm that which is right and good, and call out that which is wrong and harmful, regardless of whether it leans blue or red.
I heard a quote on a podcast a few years ago that I thought I had saved, but I can’t find it this morning.
I don’t want to misquote or falsely attribute to someone (though I think I remember who said it), so I’ll just give the gist:
For a follower of Jesus to become an apologist for one political party is to become an enemy of the other and to lose our ability to speak prophetically to either.
Speaking prophetically is not predicting the future; it is calling out what is inconsistent with the ways of God.
I hope you have noticed that for this post I have strategically declined mentioning specific incidents that need to be called out—especially those that are justifiably getting a lot of mentions recently.
I have strong opinions and convictions about some particularly grievous actions of late.
But my purpose today—as I stated at the beginning—is to call out and call TO my fellow Jesus followers.
Neither our red/blue outrage nor our red/blue advocacy is highlighting the central truth of the gospel: Jesus is Lord.
There’s a better way.
Be amazing today, my friend.
