Who Are You Going to Vote For?

I heard someone say recently that are not  very apt in keeping up with current events.     I am told that readership of newspapers are down, and that people get more of their  news from the internet and social media sites.   Despite that,  I think that it fair to say that even persons on the periphery of current events know that this is an election year.    While there is much focus on the 2016 Presidential election here in the Untied States, we have many other offices where candidates seek election.    There are persons seeking to be elected as our United States senator, our governor, and many offices in our community. .    

I find myself not certain who I am going to vote for for most offices.  I am sure that some reading this would be happy to give me their “sales job” on their candidates of choice.     I am a person that seeks to vote for the person, and not along party lines.  I  am trying to watch the debates and town hall meetings on the national scene.  I am trying to read the newspaper hoping to find what the candidates have to say and what is said about the candidates.   

I went to a different source recently to educate me in this election year.     Instead of reading the newspaper or watching the television, I went to the Bible to see what it has to say about leadership and leaders.   In Acts 20,  the apostle Paul meets with some of the leaders of the Ephesian Church.    Read these words from Acts 20:17-21 where we find these words:

¹⁷ From Miletus he sent messengers^[f] to Ephesus to ask the elders of the church to meet with him. ¹⁸ When they came to him, he told them, “You know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day I set foot in Asia. ¹⁹ I served the Lord with all humility, with tears, and with trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. ²⁰ I never shrank from telling you anything that would help you nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house. ²¹ I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance to God and faith in our Lord Jesus.^[g]

As one of the leaders of the early Church, the apostle Paul, speaks to the Ephesian Church leadership, there are some words that stand out for me about the kind of leaders that I believe that God wants us to have in our nation, state, and communities.    Those words are qualities that are important for leaders not just in the days of the early Church, but also today.  They are qualities important not just for leaders in communities of faith, but also in our government.     Let me lift up some of the qualities found in these words of Paul.   They are as follows:

• Servanthood-  A good leader wants to serve, not to be served 
• Humility-    A good leader has a humble spirit
• Care and compassion-  Paul speaks of his tears in his service.   A good leader cares about those he serves.
• Integrity-  Paul speaks that even in the midst of trails he never knew “shrank from truth”.    What an important quality in any leader.

Those are some of the qualities I am looking for in those I vote for in this election year.    How about you?     Have a joy-filled week.-   Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:  Lord and God,  Give us wisdom in these election year to see the candidates as you see them.   Give us wisdom to see the truth of who you would have be our leaders.    Amen.