It occurred to me today that we have some serious focus issues.

I usually try to avoid overtly religious posts, but this post is going to be one of those posts.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about politics, because I am deeply concerned about where we are as a nation in terms of state, local, and federal politics. In fact, my wife told me a couple of weeks ago that she’s never seen me so consumed by politics.

I don’t know if I’ve ever been this worried. Everything seems so divisive these days.

I primarily have the news and social media to blame, so of course, there’s that.

I realized the other night that there are, right now in America (and perhaps there have been for some time), some striking similarities between the Israelites of the Old Testament and the American people (especially those who are, or would identify themselves as, Christians).

If you’ve never read the Old Testament, you don’t really need to, in order to understand what I’m about to discuss. For the most part, just read the first nine chapters of the book of I Samuel, and you should be fine. The gist of the story is this –> the Israelites (God’s people) had been fraternizing with the nations surrounding them for long enough that they were wanting to start to do what those nations were doing; they were wanting to live their lives according to the practices of those others peoples, as opposed to the directions of God.

If you’ve ever had your kids, trying to persuade you to let them do something, use the argument, “Well, Billy’s mom lets him…”, then you can imagine what the Israelites were probably thinking in their heads when they were seeking permission to do what the people in the nations around them were doing. In fact, in one particular example (see I Samuel 8), when the people come to Samuel, who was the religious leader for the nation, they told him that they were particularly interested in having a king, like the other nations around them.

Samuel’s natural response would have been something like, “You already have a king. The Greatest King! GOD!!! You don’t need any other king.” And certainly, the people would have persisted –“But, SAMUEL, the Canaanites are doing it, and the Amelikites are doing it, and the Jebusites are doing it!! PLEASE!!!“. So Samuel, in his frustration with the people, decides to speak to God.

And God says to Samuel, “Give them what they want.”

Because God is not about trying to stop us from doing the wrong thing. If He were, the Bible would have ended after only a few short chapters in Genesis. Rather, he allows us the free will to make our own choices (normally bad ones). And the Bible ends up being a book with more than a thousand chapters, many of which are chronicles of the human tendency to stray.

And so, Samuel gives the people a king. The first king was a guy named Saul. He was a real poop. The next king was better, but he also had his faults. The next king –same story. In fact, the Israelites had a whole string of kings and not a single one of them, even the best of them, would have ever legitimized the decision of the nation to start doing what the surrounding peoples were doing.

And, this decision by the Israelites, to follow a king instead of following their God, is just one example, of the many that exist in the Old Testament, of how God’s people got distracted from being faithful to Him.

* * *

So, fast forward thousands of years and here we are in twenty-first century America.

Of course, after all this time that we’ve had, and all of the practice that we’ve been allowed, and all of the instructions that are in the Bible, and all of the examples of ‘what not to do’, of course we’re finally getting it right, right?

Wrong.

Here we still are, those of us who claim to be God’s people –as Christians– still amazingly distracted by what’s going on around us. We’ve taken our eyes off of the Creator of the universe, and instead we’ve become fascinated by created things –> a list of distracting created things that is so enormous that it boggles the mind. We are especially distracted by other people, just as the Israelites were distracted by the Canaanites, the Amelikites, and the Jebusites, among others, all those many years ago.

Specifically speaking, the twenty-first century Christian’s particular penchant for politics is especially disturbing, in light of the lesson of 1 Samuel 8.

I wish I had a dollar for every post that I’ve recently seen from a Christian who believes that liberals are demons and that conservatives are the only future for America.

Jesus is the only future for America.

I wish I had a dollar for every Christian that I’ve recently witnessed posting more about the people that they don’t like in politics than about the information that they have that can really change the world. And, another dollar would be great for every Christian who does the opposite, worshipping those creatures in politics, instead of the Creator, with their social media rants.

Only Jesus can save the world. No politician is ever going to change the world. The lesson is contained solidly in the pages of the Old Testament.

I’m nobody’s judge, and I am as wretched as the next sinner, but I have a feeling that if God struck down every ‘Christian’ who spends more time in a day thinking about the presidency than they do in prayer and Bible-reading, it would make the coronavirus death toll look like a parking lot fender-bender.

I pray that He doesn’t, though, because my family might miss me.

* * *

So, while I try to figure out how to turn my eyes back to The Father, let’s get something straight.

Isaiah 53:6

And also this: I ought to stop worrying about this silly place. This world is not my home. I will spend a few more decades here and then I will die and be reunited with The King that I should have been following all along, if He sees fit to have me. For me, for now, there is only one thing to do.

The next right thing.