I’m writing this on the morning of Election Day here in Britain, aware that whatever individual people decide to do will influence our future for years to come and will even affect the lives of people living far beyond our own nation. Decisions about whether to engage in wars or whether to extend compassion to desperate people, decisions about law and punishment and what kind of society we choose to be will be influenced by which box you and I put a cross in when our moment of decision comes.
You may already guess where I'm going with this; I’m about to make the point that it’s wrong to be cynical and apathetic and say that what you and I decide as one individual person can’t make a difference. If we say that we are running away from the responsibility God gave us at the outset, when the human race was in its infancy, the ability to sense what is right and ‘be stewards over’, that is, to take responsibility for, this world we live in.
We must actively chose which person we put a cross by, which name we give power to, power to influence us and those around us.
Politicians rise and fall, some serving well, others proving unworthy of their position of trust. In my opinion there is only one name which rises above all others, the name I chose to give the place of most influence over my life when I was twenty-six years old. His cross has not faded or been there just there for a brief period then been discarded. The name of Jesus is the one I chose and will always choose, and the politician I elect today will be the one whose values are closest to the Way which Jesus opened two thousand years ago, of truth and goodness, of hope and a future for those who thought nobody would ever include them, of redemption and life.
Veronica