It’s election day. And i’m not voting.
I don’t have any problems with voting, and i would vote if i had thought it through. But i didn’t want to register in Massachusetts, and i waited too long to request my North Carolina absentee ballot. Perhaps if i cared more i would have been more proactive, but i don’t really care. I don’t believe that the winner of this election will decide or even affect my happiness over the next four years, and i don’t believe he will have the power to really change the things that trouble me.
In a way, i am truly grateful that i cannot with good conscious place that much trust and faith in one man. I am left with only one place to put my trust and faith.
Oswald Chambers writes:
“...if we love a human being and do not love God, we demand of him every perfection and every rectitude, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictivel we are demanding of a human being that which he or she cannot give. There is only one Being Who can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Why our Lord is apparently so severe regarding every human relationship is because He knows that every relationship not based on loyalty to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no man, yet He was never suspicious, never bitter. Our Lord’s confidence in God and in what His grace could do for any man, was so perfect that He despaired of no one. If our trust is placed in human beings, we shall end in despairing of everyone.”
Four years ago, i believed many people placed President Obama on a pedestal on the same level as, if not above, God. And when he only delivered some of what he promised, their enthusiasm diminished. As a recent episode of 30 Rock pointed out, “We’re not doing that this year - no one’s that excited.”
What interests me about this phenomenon lately is how we can do the same thing in our personal lives. I have very recently had a friendship dissolve, a good friendship i thought. I put a lot of time and energy into my relationship with someone, trying to support him and be there for him when he had problems. Unfortunately, when i expected reciprocity, when i needed someone to return the support i had given him, he proved unable or unwilling to deliver - the burden of another’s problems proved too much to handle. I learned a valuable lesson in the risks of trusting people.
I'm not saying you shouldn't vote this election, or that i never will, only that i don't feel compelled or convicted to do so right now. Oh, i still trust many politicians and i still have faith in our political system, just as i have trust and faith in many of my other good friends. I know there are people who will be there for me when i need it. But the only being that i know will always be there for me is God.
This election and my recent falling out with a friend remind me of that, and comfort me. The people i see who place their trust in human beings have thusfar only ended in despairing of everyone, and i thank God i haven’t reached that point.
