A couple years ago, I went to the optometrist to get my eyes checked. She had me sit in a seat and stare through a big set of goggles at a picture on the far wall. Admittedly, the picture looked pretty fuzzy all that way across the room. Then, she started flipping lenses in front of my eyes. Some of these lenses further obscured the picture, but a few of them really helped bring it into focus. I left her office with a prescription for reading glasses and a newfound appreciation for the difference the right lenses can have on the way we view the world.

If there was ever a time we could use a new perspective, it’s right now as we head into the final days of this presidential election. I thought 2016 was contentious, but 2020 has taken it to a whole new level. I can’t recall an election that has been more polarizing and emotionally charged. It’s led friends to belittle one another on social media for their political perspectives. It’s caused family members to stop speaking to one another. As a pastor, this election has made my heart heavy.

Now, typically we only look at an election through the lenses of political pundits and social media, but I've found that all these sources tend to stir up is more fear and agitation. What we truly need is a new perspective on this election, one that is based on something more solid than the shifting sands of public opinion and partisan politics. My hope is that in the following paragraphs I can do for this election what my optometrist did for the picture on the wall - bring it into perspective through the use of some different lenses.

As a Christ-follower, I can think of no better framework to look at this election through than the Bible. It is the inspired word of God and it has outlasted nations and political movements. So the lenses I will use are biblical perspectives that can help us bring this election into focus. 

Lens 1: As Christ-Followers, we are citizens of God’s Kingdom.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul told believers that although they lived in a Roman city, their primary allegiance was not to the Empire of Rome or to its Emperor. He explained that as believers “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).

The same is true of us. Sometimes we get so focused on this world around us that we forget that we’re no longer defined by it. If you have accepted Jesus’ invitation to follow him, you are not an American Christian, you are a Christian who happens to live in America. Our identity has fundamentally changed. 

And yet, sometimes it feels as if our patriotism to this country overshadows our devotion to our God. Many of us spend more time worrying about the politics of this world than we do the values of the Kingdom of God. Here are a couple questions to consider:

• Do you look to a candidate or a political party as the solution to the issues we face?

• Have you been spending more time reading articles, watching the news and browsing your social media feed than you do connecting with God and meditating on his word?

• Do you pay taxes, but resist giving to God?

• Are you more outspoken about your political perspective than you are your faith?

• Are you more concerned with the shifting morality of our nation than you are looking into your own heart and recognizing the ways you have resisted submitting to God?

• Are you more patriotic for America than you are for Jesus? 

The first thing we need to remember as we approach this election is that our primary allegiance is not to a presidential candidate or a political party, it’s to the Creator and Sustainer of the world, the one who rescued us out of darkness and gave Himself for us so that we can be called sons and daughters of God. Again, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20)

If we forget that, if we take our eyes off of God and look to a political party or a politician to fix the brokenness around us, not only will we be sorely disappointed, but we will stumble into the same trap that the religious leaders of Jesus’ day fell into. They longed to see God’s Kingdom come and His will be done on earth, but their idea of how God would accomplish this was different from how God actually planned to accomplish it. Like us, they were looking for a savior, but their expectations of what this savior should look like had been deeply influenced by the power structures of the world around them that said things like “might makes right” and “compromise is acceptable so long as the ends justify the means.“

Because of this, when their savior actually did show up, they couldn’t recognize him. Despite the fact that Jesus was doing what God said he would do - driving out demons, healing the sick, binding up the broken and breaking down strongholds - they viewed him as a pretender to the throne. What’s more, they feared that he could actually cost them what little political influence that they had. So what did they do? They sought to shut him up and, when that didn’t work, they clamored for his death. They compromised in order to retain what little control they had by declaring their allegiance to Rome (the political power broker of their day) rather than embracing their King.

May we not forget that we are temporary residents in this world, citizens of the Kingdom of God living in a world that does not share our values. May we never put our faith in a politician or a political party, because at the end of the day they are not our savior – last time I checked, Jesus was. Similarly, America is not the hope of the world - Jesus is.

This brings us to our second perspective shift –

Lens 2: Though only temporary residents, we still have a responsibility to be God’s representatives. 

Despite the fact that we are citizens of another Kingdom and living here as foreigners, that doesn’t mean we have no responsibility for the place in which we live. We were designed by God to be His representatives and called to be ambassadors of hope to a hurting world (2 Corinthians 5:17-20). This led the Apostle Peter to write:

“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among unbelievers that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:11-12)

How we live our lives matter, because we are God’s representatives. We reflect (albeit imperfectly) the heart of our King to the world around us. And our actions speak far more loudly than our words. 

We are surrounded by people who live and think and vote differently than us. We can claim that God is love all day long, but how we treat people like them says more to the world than our words. When someone accuses us of being bigoted or racist or closed-minded just because we call ourselves a Christ follower, how we respond shows them the sort of God we serve. Do we respond with love? Or do we meet anger with anger, hatred with hatred?

Furthermore, we are called to reflect the values of the Kingdom of God, despite how contrary they are to the values of the world in which we reside. While the world says to destroy your enemies, either with words or weapons, Jesus told us to love our enemies and to pray for them. In a world that honors the strong and celebrates the victors who climb to the top over the beaten backs of their competition, Jesus said that the greatest in the Kingdom of God will serve others and put their well-being above their own. 

So, as aliens and strangers here, citizens of a foreign country living in a broken, sin scarred world, we are called to embrace and exhibit the values of the kingdom of God, called to be representatives of our true King. Of course this doesn’t give us permission to simply disregard the laws of the land in which we reside. Peter continues:

“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:13-17).

Notice that we submit ourselves to the leadership of this land “for the Lord’s sake.” We are his representatives, his ambassadors, and as such we don’t flaunt our freedoms, but we do live as representatives of the Kingdom of God.

Now, I want to be very clear about something. Just because we’re citizens of another Kingdom living in exile doesn’t mean that we disregard the upcoming election or refuse to do our civic duty of voting. After all, as Christ followers we are called to be stewards of what God has entrusted to our care, and our vote is one of those things. On Tuesday, we have an opportunity to give voice to our values through voting (not just for the top of the ticket, which is where most of our attention has been focused, but all the way down the ballot on issues that will impact our community as well as our country). To refuse to vote is about as effective as burying the talent our master has entrusted to us in the ground (Matthew 25:14-30).

However, I want us to remember that our vote is not the only tool we have for shaping and influencing our community. We may only go to the polls once every couple years, but we vote every single day for the kind of community we want to live in by the way we treat our neighbors, by the ways we spend our money, by the values that direct our actions and by the places where we volunteer. 

I love the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, written to the Israelites as they found themselves living in exile, in a land that was not their true home. He said, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7). 

This may not be our permanent home, but as ambassadors of our King, we have a responsibility to care for the community in which we reside, and to pray for it. This includes praying for our leaders - even the ones we didn’t vote for - because they have been entrusted with the weight of leadership, and our God can and does use even bad leaders to bring about His good and perfect will.

This brings us to our third lens:

Lens 3: Regardless of who wins this election, God is in control.

“Make your motions and cast your vote, but God has the final say” (Proverbs 16:33, MSG).

The message of scripture is that, while man has free will and we make choices that affect our reality (such as electing who will govern our country), God still works behind the scenes to bring about his perfect will. Now, at times it might seem like God has lost control and the inmates are running the asylum, but scripture is full of reminders that we might plot our course, but the Lord ultimately directs our steps (Proverbs 16:9). 

We may be wringing our hands about what might happen on Tuesday, but the outcome is no surprise to our God. He already knows what will happen. He already sees how our choices will affect our temporary home, how it will shape our society. What’s more, He can and will use the outcome of the election to bring about His purpose and plans, even if what He wants isn’t exactly what we would have expected or asked for.

I think of the Israelites living as slaves in Egypt during the time of Moses. They would sit around the fire, recounting the story of their ancestor Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, then falsely accused of sexual harassment and ultimately thrown into jail. Yet, God used these circumstances to place Joseph into the right place at the right time so that he could rise to power and save the Israelites from the coming famine. They would remember Joseph’s words to his brothers – “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20). God used his brothers’ jealousy, used their decision to sell their brother into slavery, even used a false accusation to place Joseph right where He wanted him.

And then, as these Israelites sat around the fire, with weary muscles and calloused hands from a lifetime of slave labor, they’d consider their current leader - Pharaoh. He was so different from the Egyptian ruler that had entrusted Joseph with power. This Pharaoh didn’t treat them as honored guests – he’d enslaved them. I would imagine that the Israelites of Moses’ day probably didn’t think that God had any control over their circumstances, probably felt that the Pharaoh in power was the wrong candidate. If they had been given a vote, they almost certainly wouldn’t have voted for him – maybe they’d have looked to Moses as their candidate for change. 

Yet, God allowed Pharaoh to sit on the throne of the most powerful nation in the world, not because he was a Godly leader, but because our Creator was going to use Him to bring about His purpose and plan. Listen to what God told Pharaoh: “By now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth” (Exodus 9:15-16).

Don't think that someone is in power because our God has no control - they are in power because our God has allowed it and He plans to use them to advance His purpose and plans. Nations rise and fall, presidents come and go, but our God never changes - He never fails. 

That’s not to say that we won’t suffer or endure persecution. In fact, if we take Jesus at his word, we are guaranteed to be persecuted for our faith (John 15:18-21). After all, we are foreigners living in a land whose values are at odds with the values of our Lord and King. And just as they sought to silence Jesus, they will seek to silence us. However, the fact that we suffer persecution doesn’t mean God has lost and the brokenness of this world has won. 

As I look around, I recognize the ways that God uses even persecution to advance His purposes and plans. It was persecution that prompted Rome to crucify Jesus. It was persecution that motivated the spread of the Gospel (Acts 8:1-4). And as I look around right now, the gospel is making the greatest impact in those areas of our world where Christ-followers are experiencing the greatest levels of persecution, places like China and the Middle East. 

No one likes to be persecuted, but it seems that persecution actually promotes spiritual growth, so perhaps the greatest good that can come from this election is that the American people select politicians and policies that will further the persecution of the church. I’m not saying that’s the way I’m voting. I’m just saying that God’s ways are not always our ways and what we see as a setback might actually be a huge leap forward in His redemptive plan. Regardless of the outcome of this election, we can have confidence that our God is on the throne, not only of our hearts, but of all of creation. Furthermore, although we don’t know what the path ahead looks like, we can rest assured that our Father in Heaven does and He is using even these messy circumstances to advance His kingdom purposes.  

So on Tuesday go to a polling station and vote. Elect a temporary leader for our temporary home. But don’t forget that we are foreigners living in this land, and God is our true King. While we reside here we are called to be His ambassadors, reflecting His loving heart to our hurting world in both word and deed. Just remember, despite the outcome of this or any election, our God is in control and He will bring about His purpose and plans, both in this world and the one to come.