Politics or Jesus?

I am personally so grateful that this election year is almost over. I hate politics. Until this year, I tried to stay involved to a very small degree hoping that it would change from a hard, painful place in my story but it hasn’t. The way that people view each other based on the label of “Republican” or “Democrat” is horrifying. I spent some time on the phone last week with a good friend of mine and during the conversation the subject came up of her parents being democrat. Now, I hadn’t really thought about her affiliation and so of course, I hadn’t thought about theirs. When she was sharing what a difficult time they were having in their new home town because they live in a “red” state now and don’t seem to fit. Though my heart went out to them, I even felt my own thoughts about their predicament and I teased with her a bit but realized quickly that it was a deep wound she was suffering with for her parents. I pulled back out and we reminded one another of our common ground, Jesus.

I am registered as Republican and the only reason was to be able to vote for my dad in the primary. Prior to then, I was registered Independent. My views tend to lean toward Republican but I HATE politics as usual so Independent gave me room to make up my own mind. Politics has gotten ugly to some people just recently, but I recall my own childhood and the stories I heard about politics when my dad was running for Congress in 1978 and 1980. It was shameful then too, the difference is social media and the internet. Back then, people didn’t say out loud, especially in the presence of someone they knew felt differently, their thoughts on who and what was best. Today, you cannot escape knowing whether or not you and your friends are on the same page and sometimes just the different party label can cause friendships to end.

Revelations was written about this time in our world. Jesus didn’t come to bring peace to the world, He came to divide it. We are in the end times and I can see the division become ever wider and deeper every day. Family pitted against family because of politics, really? I got a Facebook message yesterday from a lady about 20 years older than me who is an acquaintance of my dads. I don’t know her at all but she has apparently watched me and posts I’ve made on Facebook and possibly on here. She sent the message as an encouragement I believe, but in it she was sharing that she has three daughters that are all Democrats and that they just treated her awfully. She shared that she knew my dad and his wife and was an avid supporter of his. Her goal was to let me know she wished her daughters had turned out more like me. My heart went out to her as I scanned through her Facebook page. She is apparently a major Republican supporter and politics has divided her from her daughters. All I can say to this is where is love in it? And who’s responsibility is it to step outside of political crap and decide that family is worth more than the state of our United States?

Growing up in politics was awful. I was the youngest in our family by four years and the only girl. I was only 7 when it all began. Because of politics, I was left to fend for myself a lot. Everyone else was busy and so I would walk the streets of downtown Muskogee. I am grateful it was a kind of safe place to live back then because I made friends with Mr. Pittman, the pawn shop owner, and many other male business owners. I wouldn’t allow my kids to do that, but it is what was necessary to make the campaign happen when I was a kid. I also recall spending hours in the attic of the huge, open campaign headquarters, by myself. It was a lonely childhood for a completely extroverted little girl and not one I would want for another human being. I suffered in silence because I was also taught that family loyalty was the most important thing I could offer so I did. We were, and still are, a highly damaged family.

I don’t know what God has in store for my birth family or for my immediate family but I do know that it will not include politics EVER AGAIN. (I say that, but I also always leave room for God to change my mind.) I pray that we all would choose to focus on the only label that really matters…”child of God”. In this end times, I believe Jesus is calling us to look at our commonality in Him rather than our disagreements about how our country should be run. I even find myself listening to the labels and immediately find something that a brother or sister in Christ and I disagree on. What good will come from that? None. I am ready to look at what we have in common and let God develop us from there aren’t you? Isn’t that what love is?

I had a lonely and somewhat sad childhood, it has cost me a lot as an adult. Gratefully, God had a purpose in placing me in the family that He did. My mom was a ROCK STAR! No, not even close to perfect, but an incredible mom, even if I do say so myself. I learned so much from having a dad with such a dominant personality, in some areas I learned how to handle things well and in other areas I learned what I didn’t want to do. Politics is something that I didn’t want to do, I’ll leave that heartache to my dad and my brother. I choose to be a beacon of light for Jesus, after all my mom named me CHANDRA, “reflector of Light”. I pray that no matter what the state of affairs are in our political world, God will draw His kids to much greater purposes in His Kingdom on earth. I pray you will not only read the verse that I will end with, but rather let God root it in your deepest inner man. I know I serve a God who loves me and you so this verse is a promise that will not end.

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for my good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many,” Genesis 50:20