UnAfraid-The Election Edition

So part one of my thoughts on being Untangled deals with fear. Mainly, I think of fear as entangling for me because fear usually freezes me in my tracks. When I get afraid in life, I usually just stop. No going forward, no going backward. But lately, I've been focusing on fear in a different way. First, let me say, that my four year goal is that by the next presidential election I want to cast a vote that is an informed decision voicing my preference for the next leader of our nation. I would like to think that will be true this year, but like many Americans, I have allowed myself to become too emotionally involved in this race. I had hoped that by reading Shane Claiborne's "Jesus for President" that I would temper my political feelings, but alas, it did not. I remember 1992, my first presidential contest; several of my friends and I took pride in slogans like "don't blame me, I voted for..." and we even threw around the false threat of moving out of the country because of the election. Eight years later, I must say, my life continued much as it had for the previous 20. And the next eight years brought a change of administration and again, my life stayed much the same. My political sway has changed over the years, but why should I now fear that the next four or eight will be any different. Paul reminds us that we are not of this world, and Jesus had a pretty effective ministry under the rule of a government much more oppressive and brutal than ours. If Paul's words can be so filled with hope, while often writing from the cell of a jail, then how much more should ours be filled with hope in our time. This lack of hope and burning fear leads us to label a young visionary a terrorist and to hang an effigy of a public servant who has put herself out as a candidate for service to her fellow citizens. I will cast my vote, but I will cast it in hope that regardless of who holds the name President for the next four years, that my allegiance will be pledged to "Thy Kingdom Come". No more fear, because in this world we will have trouble, but take heart, this world IS overcome by He who knows not the difference in liberal and conservative.