So I got a new shaving set for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. It includes a straight razor, a badger hair brush, a leather strop, shaving soap, and a sharpening stone. I’ve been relearning how to shave, getting better and faster each time. This video is of the first time I tried it out. It took over half an hour.
Teresa and I are voting later today. One of the things that we have found more and more troublesome about this election is the way in which so many people seem to be arguing that one or the other candidates is God’s anointed. The argument tends to go like this, “Candidate A is God’s anointed because he agrees with me.” Or it goes like this, “Candidate B is clearly not God’s anointed because he disagrees with me. Therefore, Candidate A must be the anointed one.”
This past Sunday in church we read Isaiah 45:1-7. It was just what came up in the rotation of readings that we go through every 3 years. I thought it was interesting given the way people talk about the candidates. Here are some short excerpts.
“Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before you…I call you by name, I surname you, though you do not know me…I arm you, though you do not know me, so that they may know…that there is no one besides me.”
Here’s a little background. Cyrus was the pagan king of Persia. Like God said, Cyrus did not know God. Cyrus wasn’t really interested in God’s glory, truth, ethics, agenda, or platform. Yet God chose him so that people would know there is no God besides God.
Hmm. Maybe we aren’t as all-knowing as we thought. Maybe we can’t be so definitive about who is God’s anointed based on whether they agree with us or not. Look at Cyrus, he didn’t even know God, yet God chose him to fulfill God’s purposes.
Does this mean we should vote against our conscience? No. But it does mean that maybe people who love Jesus can enjoy some polite and civil political discourse, free from judging one another. We might benefit from a little bit of humility, aware that we don’t know the entirety of God’s mind.
A Couple of Links: Our friend Thomas has had a lot of great things to say during this whole election season. These first two links about the same issues I’m talking about. The last one is to all of his articles on politics. I highly recommend checking some of this out.
