On People and Presidents

I voted this morning. I have my little peach sticker to prove it. Honestly, the whole experience was rather intimidating. Who I voted for is not the subject of this post. Instead, I’d like to share some of my thoughts regarding my voting experience.

When I voted, I stood in line for 15 minutes (I was fortunate). I handed my little registration card to a woman who gave me a little yellow key-card. I then had a conversation with a woman about our local college football team for a couple of minutes. I got an angry look from the woman in charge when I didn’t immediately step up to the next vacant booth (I wasn’t sure if the machine was ready or not…after all, I didn’t want to be the guy that screwed up the election results by causing a machine breakdown). I stepped up to the machine and felt like everyone was watching me because there was no curtain like you always see on TV. And then I voted.

Standing there before that touch screen, I had an overwhelming sense of anxiety. After all, I was helping to determine who would run our country for the next four years. Sure, I voted in Georgia (which I think will be hard-pressed to swing from a “red” to a “blue” state—for better or for worse). Nevertheless, my vote counts.

Then I started thinking about stuff. In America, we think we have so much power and control over everything that goes on. We’ve been bred to believe that we are in the driver’s seat in all of the occurrences of the world. But we’re not. Not at all.

The Bible is very clear on the fact that God is ultimately in control of everything, including who rules a nation. Daniel 2:20-21 says, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings….” God brought in the Medes and the Persians to overthrown the Babylonian Empire. He hardened the heart of Pharaoh against the people of Israel. If we take the Bible literally, God has done exactly what Daniel 2 says – establish governments.

I don’t want to get into a debate over free will, predestination, or whether or not our prayers mean anything if God’s already written things in stone. For that, I refer you to C.S. Lewis who argues that these things are irrelevant because God does not occupy time as we do; thus, he does not operate on our time table (Screwtape Letters).

We do, however, need to realize that God is ultimately in control. Regardless of how people vote, who gets in office next year, whether or not or our country goes bankrupt, or we get nuked by some other country—God is ultimately in control. He always has been. He always will be. He will never forsake us, and he will never let us go from the palm of his hand—even if we make stupid decisions.

And standing there in front of a voting booth, being reminded of that thought, it makes me feel a lot more comfortable.