November 8, 2016
Today is “Election Day.”
For some people, that means nothing. The controversy and insanity of this election has already brought so much disunity and chaos into the world that some have given up on politics altogether. The system is so broken and beyond repair that it’s not even worth trying to fix.
For others, this is a very scary election because both options seem terrible so no matter who gets voted in, we’re doomed.
Others have chosen one side firmly and are perfectly confident in their decision.
But let’s forget all of that for a minute.
The reality is that regardless of who gets nominated today, the majority of us will go on living our day-to-day lives. Obviously there will be policy changes that will affect and change things, but that is not what I’m referring to. I’m not talking about the decisions we make on paper, on our ballots. I’m talking about the little, unconscious decisions we make every single day that determine our character.
I’m talking about who we are.
The words we speak. The way we spend our free time. The way we spend our money. The things we do when no one is watching. How we treat people.
Who we are in real life.
We are so quick to sit back and point at political figures. They get all of the blame for the areas we’d like to see change in.
What we are missing completely is the power of the day-to-day.
Of our day-to-day.
The decisions that we make over and over again. The habit-forming choices we make to subconsciously become the humans (and therefore, society) that we have become.
We know hate so well in our world today because of who we are on a micro level – who we are to our spouses, our kids, our co workers, the cashier at the grocery store, people of different skin colors and backgrounds, orphans, widows, the poor.
We know racism so well today because of the selfish pretenses we have created to protect “me and my own.”
We know violence so well today because we don’t know how to love our enemies; rather, we aren’t even concerned with loving our enemies. We want revenge, we want what’s ours, we want what we “deserve,” we want it now.
We are all guilty of it. I don’t care what political party you associate with – we all fall short of the ideal humanity that we long to see.
Every human has the exact same responsibility. And that responsibility is not dependent on your political status, your ethnicity, or where your citizenship is. If you are a human, your duty is to love. That is what you were created to do.
Underneath each of our outer shells of put-togetherness, there is a deeply flawed human in need of grace.
Underneath that frail layer of human flesh, there is a soul that was very carefully and beautifully made in the image of a loving God who cares deeply for them – just as much as he cares about you.
If we would take the few extra seconds to remember that with every human encounter we had in a day, including the people all around the world that we encounter indirectly with the little decisions we make, I wonder how that would change how we respond to people.
I wonder how that would bring true change in our world as a whole.
The only way we will know this as a reality and not just an idea is if we choose to be the types of people to actually show grace in those small moments of our lives.
The types of people to actively choose selflessness in the small areas of our lives that form the selfish habits that make us selfish people.
So vote, yes. Absolutely vote. That is a right, a privilege, and a responsibility that we certainly should not take for granted or count as lost.
But vote every day with your heart, mind, and body, not just once every four years with your ballot.