It all comes down to this

What is the driving force behind your motivations, your decisions? Is it wanting to leave the world a better place? Is it personal happiness? A determination to be different than how you grew up or who you’ve become? The Golden Rule?

It’s definitely something. In a moment of crisis, when faced with a life-altering decision, not a one of us are islands unto ourselves, operating in a vacuum.  We’ve been taught, conditioned, educated or aroused by something that informs our conscience how to guide us in crucial moments. Not that we don’t get side tracked or succumb to detours along the dreary/weary/fraught-strewn way. We do. But when there is a heightened commitment to clarity, what is your guiding force?

Because this has come up a lot in this election. Who you vote for seems almost secondary to how you decide who to vote for.  It would seem we’re well beyond party affiliation or policy, and have forayed into territory we’re calling “the lesser evil”.  Just vote for that.

Easy enough.

Except it isn’t.

How do we evaluate the “evilness” of one action over another? Scale of 1 to 10 it? Problem is, we’ve no idea the scope of where one behavior began and where the other might end.  How then can we know with certainty which evil is lesser, when we don’t have the sum of their totalities?

Then all good christians everywhere shouted, “the Bible!” That’s our guide.

Agreed.

But is it?

Most christians I know follow better bloggers than I, listen to podcasts of amazing speakers, go to (perhaps even teach at) church weekly, and read well written, brilliantly researched books on every topic from A to Z, and thus believe the Bible is their guide.

While all of the aforementioned activities are super great, I think its more accurate to say they’re describing what we’ve been told about the Bible.

Which almost never stands up under the pressure of the bottom falling out of our life, or the desperation associated with critical decision making because we know we are the ones that will ultimately live with our choices. Not the awesome podcaster who really made us think.

So I’ll be honest; this non-stop daily waffling has rattled me. I’ve read the pros and cons of how to cast my vote from all sorts of people I respect. But strip all that away, and it’s just me and my conscience, paralyzed.

And I’m a fairly decisive person.

When one day last week as I was pounding it out with a slow jog (because I enjoy breathing), I looked over in a direction opposite of the way I was headed and saw Jesus standing there, leaning on an out-building, watching me (not really – no one was even there – but it was an impression I got). Suddenly it was clear: have my years of knowing Jesus meant nothing?  I started to cry (more perks of the slow jog, ability to emote), because the tension from the uncertainty of how to accurately weigh an evil or cast a vote, faded away.

But then more.

While my tear-stained smile still radiated, this came: Read.Your.Bible. I’m going to assume Jesus tossed that out there quick as he could, lest my dizzying pace get the best of me.

So I have been. Particularly the book of Mark, over and over again, looking for Jesus there on the pages, alive. He isn’t boring and he isn’t weird and if you think he might be, perhaps it’s because some boring weird person told you about him.

Which is not the same as knowing him for yourself.

So do that more. Talk to him. Out loud. How can this possibly still be a thing when just about everyone uses their blue tooth in public spaces? Or even more unnerving, while driving by themselves, appearing insane?  People freaking talk to people they can’t see all day long. We need to move beyond this as a stumbling block. He is there, with you, wanting to be known. By you. Awkwardness be gone.

Now that I’ve sufficiently gotten the Holy Ghost, I’ll settle down.

Dearest friends whom I deeply love, I really think the point of this whole election extravaganza has been to ask ourselves, then grapple with, what really guides us? What truly informs our decisions?  Dig deep.  Do we allow some unacknowledged driving force to pervade the space a still small voice is speaking? Do we do the work of Jesus relating, or do we contract it out to dynamic speakers and funny bloggers and thus conclude we’ve had our Bible for the day? Because however “more than” they appear to know or be, they’re not Jesus.

And Only Jesus will remain throughout the course of your lifetime events. Everything else has an expiration date.

But don’t take my word for it. Find out for yourself. Read your actual Bible 🙂

Because here’s another profound little tidbit: the lesser evil, by definition, is still evil. The best that you can do then, come November 8th, is know Jesus for yourself.