Citizenship May be in Heaven, But Our Job is Here

This is going to rub a lot of people I know the wrong way, but it has to be said:

Your citizenship may be in heaven, but God put you here for a reason-a job if you will.  That reason is to show his love to other people.  That reason is to steward the earth he created.  This requires that you stand up for truth.

Jesus did not blindly follow the government.  In fact, to the contrary:  Jesus pushed back. He pushed back against oppression. He pushed back against government corruption. He pushed back against self-serving dictators and those who would grab power by any means necessary to advance their own agenda.

This morning my heart is grieving more than it was in 2016.  No, the election is not decided and I am mildly hopeful that Joe Biden will be elected.  The reason I am grieving so deeply is that there are too many Christians who are taking the easy way out: following a person who says what they want to hear about abortion.  Do not include religious freedom in this conversation, because you already have it.  The Constitution does not guarantee only the Christian faith freedom or freedom from other religions, it guarantees freedom OF religion, for everyone.  Period.

This morning my heart is grieving because Donald Trump claimed victory with the election not even over.  Millions of votes, legally cast, have yet to be counted and his declaration is that he would gather his team of lawyers to STOP the counting of votes, because he didn’t want a ballot found at 4am to be counted.  I am embarrassed on behalf of our country that this kind of behavior is supported by so many.  Had he wanted them counted before midnight on Election Day, maybe fighting against early tabulation was a bad idea. 

My heart is grieving because so many Christians have put the issue of abortion above religious freedom of people who think differently than they do, above decency, honesty and truth.  My heart grieves that so many Christians ratify the behavior of someone they would not let teach Sunday School, and yet elect him as president!

You are here, on earth, for a finite number of days.  God has made exceedingly clear that you are here for a purpose.  This means, that “heaven is my country and God is my King” is great and wonderful, but you have a job to do here on earth.  That job is to live truth, boldly.  That job is to push back against that which is not true, decent, honest and loving.  This means that your job- and your employer is God- is to love the heck out of others, regardless of if they are gay, straight, transgender, black, white, brown, immigrant, asylum seeker, homeless, poor, rich, middle-class, republican or democrat.  That doesn’t mean “convert” them- that means love them, where they are.  Jesus did this if you need a reference.  He said to come and follow him.  Then he brought them into his life.  Then, in their time, they came to him.  And even if they didn’t “convert” guess what, HE STILL LOVED THEM!  If you are voting for a leader who doesn’t subscribe to that mentality, then you need to check your job description and make sure you’ve read it right.