I used to live for politics. I really did. It was everything to me.
I believed that if we just elected the right people, supported the right causes, embraced the right movements, voted in the right ways, that we could then enact the right laws, that would effect the right changes, and bring about the happiness and prosperity we all so desperately want.
I really believed it in my soul. I was young and dumb I suppose, but I really did.
And frankly, it makes me feel really stupid sometimes. I think back on some things that I wrote and said, and I praise God for the fact that my newspaper column appeared only in a few local papers and was anything but syndicated. I'm eternally grateful that the radio station I was on wielded the transmitting power of a microwave oven, so those that heard me were greatly limited in number.
Imagine fervently demanding people swear their allegiance to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in order to reach the promised land.
Imagine rallying folks to come out and shout down ObamaCare advocates at Congressional townhall meetings in order to save our society.
Imagine belittling the patriotism and heart of people who didn't understand that our culture desperately needed John Boehner to wield the gavel in the U.S. House of Representatives.
So stupid. Well-intentioned, yes. But so very, very stupid.
It's the singular message I wish I could shout from the rooftops to every American today: "Learn from my ignorance."
No matter what Barack Obama tells you, there's no "hope" to be found here.
No matter what Donald Trump says, there's no "greatness" to be achieved this way.
No matter what Kamala Harris claims, this isn't close to real "joy."
I'm afraid way too many of my fellow countrymen are believers in the wrong faith, just like I was. Promoting a counterfeit joy, a cheap imitation of something so powerfully transformative it's shocking we humans settle so easily for impotent, worldly forgeries.
But we do.
We dedicate our energies and attitudes, base our friendships and relationships, direct our finances and investments towards fighting this futile battle for fleeting earthly power and dominion. And what's amazing is that we do so knowing it won't last.
Every two or four years, we pretend the fate of our society hinges on the outcome of our national popularity contests, somehow forgetting that we live in a world that Nebuchadnezzar once ruled, that Augustus once dominated, that Ramses II once controlled. Those men once wielded power that left their contemporaries trembling in paralyzing fear, but that disintegrated and dissolved in the same winds of time that are blowing through our feeble institutions, grinding down our frail foundations this very hour.
Am I suggesting that our engagement in the public square, our efforts to build a more perfect union are immaterial or unnecessary? Not at all.
I'm not advocating for us to abandon the great civic privilege we possess to participate in efforts to best facilitate the orderly procedure of man in a fallen world. I am saying we need to be reminded how best to do that.
For those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ, we must understand the best way to secure a better future for our posterity is to urgently campaign daily for the King of Kings.
Mankind needs to know He reigns eternally over whoever temporarily wields the spindly scepters of earthly kingdoms.
That true joy is only found in proper fealty and adoring worship of One who grants us access to His paradise not for any work we have done to earn it, but because of His great, unfathomable love for us.
That men and women of every party, every race, every religion, every ethnicity, every language, every background will instinctively slouch towards sin, will let us down, and will prove themselves unworthy of our trust.
He alone is worthy of our worship.
Yes, I will vote in November. But I will do so knowing that the answers for our people, the hope of our civilization, the greatness of our country, the joy of our souls come from a King who is not on any ballot, but who is knocking at the door of every heart - urging men to answer that knock must be the top priority and the most urgent desire of anyone whose priorities are properly centered.
