Thinking out Loud

In my attempt to gather my thoughts in regards to the election and the issues that are facing our country, I wrote this. I don’t have all the answers and this little blurb is certainly not exhaustive. It makes us ask more questions than solving problems. But I think people, especially young Christian people, want to give something and do something more, and we all know that there are millions out there that need something else than what’s before them. Let’s give them Jesus.

As I watch and listen to the election debates and pay attention to the media I’ve really started to realize that I don’t fit the mold of a Democrat or Republican. I think this is because my hope does not therein lie. My hope is in Jesus and the way he calls his people to live out his kingdom here and now. My hope is in the Church. What if the State is not the answer to providing health care or welfare? It leaves no room for the church to be The Church. What if I started giving my money away to those in need? Am I ready to do my part in providing shelter, or food, or health provision? I know I’m no doctor. No, we don’t make tons of money. But we do have more than we need, I can share what I do have, and share it with a hand of love and a relationship of genuine concern and care, I can share it with the love of Jesus, and this is more valuable than food stamps. And if the entire body of Christ started doing this, in their own capacity, I believe we would see doctors and lawyers and farmers and the wealthy come out of the shadows and start caring for one another, with a face, with personal care, with love, the Love of Christ. Imagine the magnitude of difference the body could make if we all started doing this. What kind of statement would we make to the world and to wall street if we all started giving our money away instead of hoarding it? This is a call to the church.

Jesus calls upon the people of God to be the people of God, to be the body of Christ caring for it’s members as family, as One. It calls them to live radically different, loving our neighbor in a real face – to – face, personal way and not in a detached way where you can feel good about doing your part for the common good because you get taxed by the Government. And your unwarranted taxed money gets sent to so-and-so with a check in the mail. When our government provides for the needs of the people it is not redeeming, it’s not love. This is not caring for our neighbor.

What’s healing is a face, a voice, a neighbor that prays with the hurting, eats with the hungry, clothes the naked, literally, so that you may truly give them something that will change their lives inwardly and spiritually, as well as physically. Jesus says that when we care for the least we care for Him. How do we care for the least? With our tax money? This is not where true healing takes place. When the Government provides, it’s not healing. It’s enabling, it’s handicapping, it’s making the outside of the pot beautiful while the inside is left to rot. This is a white washed tomb. The hungry may get food, the naked may get clothed, the sick may get health care, but what they are left with is a hungry, naked, and lonely soul. If they have not love they have nothing! If we give them our tax money but not in love we give them nothing. What we as human beings need more than all else is relationship, Relationship with our Creator and Redeemer ultimately….and Christians have the ability to share this relationship with our neighbor, seeing the needs of the people and doing something about it, personally, through love of God and love of neighbor, living out the greatest commandment! This will start to change the world. This is where my hope lies.This will start to show the world who Jesus is and what He has come to do in the here and now. I believe this is how we begin to fulfill what Jesus meant in the Lord’s Prayer when he says, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

Here’s where my hope lies. Not in Obama. And not in McCain. As Christians our answer should not be the state. Our answer should be the church. Our answer should be the love of God that reaches out and saves the lost by caring for their needs through true relationship and love.

I’ll be honest, this is completely scary to me. I don’t have the answers. This post is more of a call to myself than anyone else. But I think it’s important for this generation of Christians to start using our imaginations, to start small, to start by discussing and brainstorming, and by stepping out of our comfortable boxes, seeking ways to love our neighbors, to start loving people and start doing something that makes me proud to be called a Christian. To start changing the world by bringing them the love that Jesus has shown for us.

I want to belong to a new mold for the common good, not of a democrat, not of a republican, but of a Christian, of the One Universal Church.

I’ll be the first to admit, this may be naïve. It doesn’t make sense. But since when did Jesus make sense? When did the call to lose our lives in order that we may find them ever make any sense? Call me crazy, but call me hopeful.