Can I Brag On My Lord?

I watched most of the political conventions these last two weeks. The public speaker in me couldn’t help but over-analyze the messages and oratory skills of the candidates and their supporters. Every person on that stage tried to persuade you with personal stories and/or big promises.

I’ll admit, some of their desires were noble, but most of the speeches felt calculated, empty, and purely political- to me at least. Some of the talking points were straight up wrong too. But debating platforms isn’t the point of this post.

One of the things I realized was that while the parties were trying to sell you their candidates, they were also trying to sell you their worldviews. According to them, material propserity is the promised land, and their party wants to be your Moses. In their view, the good life is getting wealthy when you work hard, and their candidate is the savior who can take you there.

Now there’s nothing sinful about wealth. And being rewarded for hard work is a good thing, but that can’t be where our hope lies. Wealth shouldn’t be our end goal, it should be a means to a greater end. We also can’t afford to trust in a mere man to save the day.

Candidates can make life easier for us on this earth (when their ideas actually work), but they can’t be our ultimate hope. They can not rid our world of all suffering, or bring perfect peace. Only Jesus can do that. And He will.

Please don’t misunderstand me. This is not an encouragement for you to ignore politics. Personally, I plan to pay close attention to the presidential race, and I’ll try to make an informed decision about who to vote for in November. I encourage you to do the same. I’m not saying don’t vote, I’m saying don’t buy into the lies.

The good life is not material prosperity, and political candidates aren’t stable enough to build your life upon. The good life is living by faith in a good God and building your life on Him.