What I learned from Government...

That it will never be enough.

(This is part of a group write project for High Calling blogs, hosted by High Calling Blogger Robert Hruzek of Middle Zone Musings this month.)

Samuel has an interesting discussion with God in 1 Samuel 8.  To summarize: the Israelites wanted a king. God says- if you, Israel, choose this, it’ll never be good enough. The king will take a tenth of this and that, he won’t keep your best interests in mind. Israel says: But we want to be like everyone else. God replies: Fine and dandy, but you won’t like it. And you’ll cry out to Me to change it, but I won’t hear you.

Granted, the conversation was between God and Israel. But after watching yet another dizzying round of elections, it’s a conversation worth paying attention to. Here in America, our president has been chosen. Some of us are elated and hopeful. Others are feeling depressed and scared. Yet both sides of the divide can see clearly that the problems America faces are enormous and troublesome.The problems have been years in the making, consequences of decisions made generations ago.

And without opening a can of worms…everyone has an opinion about how those things could be fixed.  Some are for limited government, some are for big government. Some are all about social change, some are not. Some want things ‘they way they were.’ There are opinions from all sides, everywhere, about how to get it done. Even within the Christian community, there is not a consensus. A close friend of mine lost a dear, dear friend over this election. And I think, we’re all reeling a bit.

There has been a lot of talk about ‘hope’. But dare I say it? It is a misguided hope. Our hope, our citizenship, lies in God alone.  While we as Christians should work with and submit to whatever government that happens to be in power where we live, we should never pin all of our hopes and desires upon whomever happens to be in power.

No one government can fix all the problems…not one G8 conference has led to world peace. That should beg the question- why not? Why can’t we eliminate poverty, racism, injustice? Doesn’t it just mean everyone gives a little bit more money?

I have my own theories on this, but I put these questions to an agnostic friend of mine. Here’s the conclusions we came to:
•    many operate by a similar moral code (even as an agnostic, my friend acknowledged that we shared the same core of moral absolutes.)
•    some do not. (Is this a problem of post-modernism, or enforcement? We couldn’t decide, and I won't subject you to the hours-long argument.)
•    Therefore, government tries to ‘bridge the gap’ between those who need little direction due to moral codes, and those who have no moral code.
•    The dilemma becomes one of absolutism or rehabilitation for law breakers. Neither is a pretty solution. On one hand- absolute discipline means the loss of life and no chance of change (executing a person the first time they steal). On the other hand, an imperfect solution (rehabilitation hardly ever works because no government has been able to fix the whole life problem: poverty, injustice, economic turmoil.)

Government will never be enough.

And we Christians should not be walking through life acting as if it is. Our focus, as Larry Nees so aptly put it, should not be focused who is sitting in the Oval Office, but on just Who is sitting on the throne in heaven. We are dirty, messy, broken humans in need of heart transfusions.

Only God will ever be enough.

Even though Israel chose a king over God’s sovereign hand, He left them with a promise that we can cling to today.

This is what the LORD says:
       "In the time of my favor I will answer you,
       and in the day of salvation I will help you;
       I will keep you and will make you
       to be a covenant for the people,
       to restore the land
       and to reassign its desolate inheritances,
 to say to the captives, 'Come out,'
       and to those in darkness, 'Be free!'
       "They will feed beside the roads
       and find pasture on every barren hill.
They will neither hunger nor thirst,
       nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them.
       He who has compassion on them will guide them
       and lead them beside springs of water…

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…

                                                Isaiah 49:8-10, 16

Comments

[Rebekah]

Great points Joy. I totally agree.

[david R]

Joy

Very true. if time has proven one thing, government cannot save us!

http://redletterbelievers.blogspot.com/2008/11/no-government-will-save-us.html

Yet, God not only tolerates governments...he tells us to support them.

Good post!

[tonia]

beautifully said, my friend.

there is much wisdom here.

[Ellen Weber]

Thanks Joy, for saying it so well. You lay the grounds for a great discussion about whos role it is to make life the best it can be, include humans as if they were currency and build a vision for a better way. Spoken like a pro! Ellen