The Red, White and Blue Candidates
We're inundated with words. Red words and blue words. Blue promises and red promises. Red platforms and blue platforms. Pro-life, pro- environment, pro guns, pro earth, pro Black, pro all lives matter, pro-immigration, pro me and my well-being, my status and my voice to be heard. The Blue and the Red are speaking loudly and for 24-hours every day. It's beginning to sound like the WAH WAH WAH from the Charlie Brown movie script.
I'm tired of the rhetoric. I'm tired of the anger. I'm tired of the battle of the words. I'm tired of hurt people, hurting people. My great concern is that even after the election in November, the pain and the war of words, and the battles will continue.
What does the 'white' candidate have to say? Don't misunderstand, the 'white' candidate has NOTHING to do with skin color. This candidate has to do with a holiness that is like a white-hot ember. Pure. Holy. A candidate that is so pure in their mission that only purity of thought, action and deed pour forth. What is the platform of this candidate?
Pro ALL life - I have come that you may have life...babies, every nation, every prisoner, every widow, every part of the creation. ALL people. "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10
Humility. "For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 18:14
Justice AND mercy. The thief on the cross speaks, "Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:42-22
Money and taxes. “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand." 1 Chronicles 29:14
Love one another - above all, Love. "Love never fails... For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:8-13
This platform is not an easy one.
Pro ALL LIFE? Wait, isn't this just about babies?? Pro ALL life...like people who have hurt me? Prisoners too?
Justice AND mercy? Justice for another means justice for me too. Do I really want justice for my past or do I want mercy and love?
Humility? I want my way, my thoughts to prevail. I want my opinion to be the one heard. Is that humility?
Money and taxes? We earned our living; we deserve to live well. Who wants to pay higher taxes? I give to others, but do I give and give and give? Do I give my shirt and my coat?
Love? Love is easy. I love those in my world...oh, what about those NOT in my world. Those who look different, have different skin, accents, those who live under bridges, those who need my shirt and my coat too, those who believe in a different God than my southern Bible-belt one?
This Candidate models a life beyond me. He requires more of me than I can easily give. In fact, this Candidate is all-consuming in His desire and expectation for me. But this platform is THE PLATFORM.
