I've always been interested in following politics. But even I am sick of politics right now! We've O.D.'ed on it these past few months! Suddenly, all those pundits on cable news sound like that indistinct blather when adults speak on a Charlie Brown special.
And the signs. I can't wait til they come down and I can see my neighbor's house again. Oh the joy to think that I can turn on my TV today and see not one political commercial, showing your opponent as Frankenstein or Bride of Frankenstein.
Sadly, America's a pretty fractured nation politically. It's hard to imagine people who've drawn such hard lines - on all sides - finding ways to work together for hurting people. We've got everybody neatly labeled and filed by a category - you're a liberal...you're a conservative...you're a Democrat, a Republican or a Tea Partier.
As I woke up on the morning after the 2010 "votequake" in America, I thought of the "Niagara" of views I heard the night before, describing how they see America. This morning, I asked God to help me see my town, my country, my world through His eyes.
And He said, "Ron, there are only two categories that really matter. When you look at people, see them as being on one of two lists." Then I remembered something I read about the days after the Titanic sank.
White Star Lines, the owners of the Titanic, set up a room in Liverpool, England, where people could wait to learn the fate of a passenger they loved. Occasionally, a company official would come in and add a name to one of two lists, posted on a large board. The lists simply read: "Known to be saved" ... "Known to be lost."
Everyone you love, everyone in your personal world - everyone reading this - is on one of two lists. They're described in the Bible this way: "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has life; He that does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:11-12). Known to be saved. Known to be lost.
It should not be what political list or religious list a person's on that defines my relationship with them - it should be which of God's lists they're on. When we get to heaven, there won't be any "Republicans." Or "Democrats." Not "liberals" or "conservatives." No "Baptists" or "Methodists" or "Roman Catholics." God sees people in terms of their eternal destination. And it defines His relationship with us.
We were all in one doomed category - sinners. People who have marginalized our Creator rather than enthroning Him. Who have defied His ways and done what we wanted to do. And cut off from Him because He's sinless and we're full of sin.
But in spite of our disregard and disrespect of the God who put us here, He refused to leave us lost. He sent His precious Son Jesus to do what only He could do - pay for our sin by paying our death penalty on the Cross. So Heaven or hell all comes down to what I do with Jesus. Whether I leave Him outside my life or put all my trust in Him as my only hope for rescue. "Have the Son, have life...don't have the Son, don't have life" (1 John 5:12).
So in this season when we'll be hearing a lot of people being defined by their label, I want to see what God sees. Saved. Lost. I want to love them like He does. Because it breaks my heart to see them lost.