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I’m gone in Indiana this week, so I’m writing this note before the election results are in.
But no matter what kind of leadership is in place when I return in a couple of days, nothing will steal my trust in God. If Nero couldn’t steal Paul’s, and Saul couldn’t steal David’s, then no governor on earth should be able to replace the comfort of God in your heart (John 14).
Your joy doesn’t come from mask mandates, vaccines, taxes, CalTrans, or unemployment benefits… it comes from abiding in the vine (John 15), and staying planted in the Word (Matthew 13), and letting the fruit of the Spirit grow in your Spirit-enriched soil (Galatians 5)! I may not have everything figured out, but I at least know good fruit when I see it. I’d rather stick with the crowd that has love, and joy, and peace, and longsuffering, and gentleness, and goodness, and meekness, and temperance as their overall demeanor.
Liberals are mean. Conservatives are mean. Everybody’s mean these days.
And that’s not of God.
So what are we to do? Cave and let them ruin our beautiful state? Meet like with like? Retreat into a compound like a cult? Put up and shut up?
No.
Be salt and light (see Matthew 5.)
Evangelize the lost (see Matthew 28 and Acts 1.)
Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt (Col. 4:6.)
Admiral McRaven talked about grassroots changes in his book Make Your Bed. In the face of all these Gen-Z activists that want to “change the world,” his premise is to change the world, they need to start with something they can control before moving onto something they can’t control.
Save the whales? Well… how about you tidy your room.
Eliminate carbon emissions? Make your bed. Start your day with a personal win before you try to tackle a world-wide revolution.
I don’t know how to change the world. But I do know Jesus told us to go out and make disciples. I suppose I can meet a few strangers and give them the Gospel. I suppose I can walk the streets and pass out Open House invitations. I suppose I can bring up a conversation about God, and direct someone to the hope I found in Christ all those years ago.
I can do something.
And so can you. It may not feel like much, but we all have to start somewhere.
Where are you going to start? What are you going to do for God? What affect are you making for eternity?
Most of the grassroots kinds of changes happen in your home, and in your personal ethics, and at your computer, and in your bedroom. Most change is at the character level… not at the politics level.
Let’s never outsource our morality or the societal fixes before we’re right with God ourselves. It must start with you.
No matter what’s happening in life, God is in control.
–-Pastor Ryan
Note: I love you all very much, and I really can’t wait to be home. I hate being in a different church on a Sunday or a Wednesday, and I talked a little bit about that in our Wednesday bulletin last week. Read it by scanning below: