We cast ballots, fishing lines, and our fate to the wind. Scripture ( 1 Peter 5:7) reminds us to cast our cares to God. Of all the preposterous ideas that faith requires, the notion that the Creator of a billion galaxies would be more than dimly aware, even concerned, with our personal plight and fright, is the most daunting. It is such an enormous premise that it took the physical incarnation of the Son of God into human form to put a handle on it.The significance of our individual voices in this election year has been either stressed, or suppressed, depending on which end of the political tracks we hail from, in a constant barrage of public media. The significance of our individual souls to an all-encompassing God is revealed for eternity in the nails and thorns that Jesus bore at Calvary.
I’ve often wished otherwise, preferring a Jesus/Genie in the lava lamp, wish-fulfilling God to the compassionate Christ who paid the price for my salvation. Salvation is wonderful and I’m sure I’ll appreciate more fully on the day of the Lord’s return, but in the meantime, I need solutions to life’s problems. I need my candidate elected, my bills paid, my debts retired, my health restored, and my retirement funded, to name a few things taped to my refrigerator.
Peter’s answer to my private “When Lord, When?” litany is to tell us to “be very glad for the fiery trials we are going through, for they make us partners with Christ. Suffer in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for He will never fail you.” (1 Peter 4:13 NLT)
He goes on to say, “Accept the authority of elders and serve each other in humility…and at the right time He will lift you up in honor.” (1 Peter 5:5-6)
It appears the answer to my dilemma of the God of the universe being intimately involved in the miracle of transforming my mundane existence into the substance of mercy and grace, is to give me opportunity after opportunity to be careful, caring, and considerate. As I learn to put your concerns forward and trust my own to His timetable, I become part of the solution, not the problem. It’s like living in a democracy where every vote matters and the election is sure.
