APPLYING A FOUR-YEAR BANDAGE

There was once a candidate for sheriff in Alabama (where else?) who, when a reporter asked him why he was running for the office, replied, "There's a lot of graft associated with the position and I want to get me some." At least he was honest.

I hope you vote whenever the occasion arises; I always do but I always refuse to wear the "I Voted" sticker with a Georgia peach on it, because, compared to those at the Alamo, at Bunker Hill, at Valley Forge, and at Gettysburg, I've done nothing commendable, so for me to say, by means of a sticker on my shirt, "LOOK AT ME. I VOTED!" That would be a travesty. But that's just me. You do what your conscience dictates.

WE NEED FEWER PEOPLE VOTING

That aside, my opinion is that we need less and fewer people voting, but you're different, I hope you always vote. That's because most people have a pitiful knowledge of the Constitution, and in fact, don't care about it like you do. That said, let's look at voting from a biblical perspective and ask, "In the long run, will voting solve the problem(s)?"

I want to suggest to you that the answer the Bible would give is, "No." Let's examine my suggestion for a moment. To do so, let's set up a scenario: let's say that you vote for just the right people and your people get into the corridors of power. Now they're in control. You like that, and rightly so. Things are looking good. Your candidates do their job and they vote to put an end to what you've wanted stopped for decades--they make abortion illegal. All abortions cease and desist.

Part of this scenario is that once they vote to declare abortion illegal, mobs take to the streets. The mobs march with placards demanding their right to choose. There are uproars across the land. 49% of the people are furious. The mobs harass the candidates you and 51% of the other folks elected. They vandalize and destroy their property, they surround their homes and chant their slogans at them all night long, and hordes of them follow their every public movement, making it impossible for them to even eat in peace. They are bitter to the max. They don't stop.

Then, four years later, it happens: the 49% has become 51% and they take control. They now have entered the corridors of power. They hold the gavel. They begin to reverse everything your political party and your elected candidates have done the last four years.

The Bible explains what's happened, or better yet, what's not happened: voting can't change the human heart. Voting, at best, is a temporary solution. It's a band-aid. One party gets "in," the party that's out works hard and a few years later gets in and changes everything. The newly party that's out starts working immediately to get back in so they can reverse things once they get in. The cycle continues ad infinitum.

But there's one thing and only one thing that's not a temporary solution and that's Christian evangelism and discipleship, that is through Spirit-worked changes in the heart and through the teaching and understanding of the Word of God, God changes the human heart.

SO . . .

By all means, vote every time you can, but when you cast that ballot, remember, you're administering a bandage to buy time to evangelize and make disciples.