I Voted!
6 min read
5 Come and see what God has done, his awesome deeds for mankind!
6 He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot—come, let us rejoice in him.
7 He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations—let not the rebellious rise up against him.Psalm 66:5-7
Somehow, this passage is so appropriate for today, election day. Presidents come and presidents go—nations come and nations go—yet God is in control of all things.
That God is in control does not mean that we are all puppets in a grand puppet show staged by God. God is all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present, and eternal, and somehow, God has allowed humanity to have free will, even within the boundaries of His absolute sovereignty. God can do that, because God is God. We cannot really grasp how that can happen, because we are not God.
And even if free will is simply an illusion, as some people believe, we cannot live our lives as if we are trapped by our predetermined destinies. How would a person even go about doing that? People who try to do that are generally thought to be mentally unhealthy.
No. Even if free will is an illusion, we must live our lives as if we have free will because with free will comes responsibility, accountability—and really, hope.
There is a middle ground between absolute determinism and absolute free will—free will within the boundaries of God’s predestined plan for humanity (and for each and every one of us).
We can imagine this middle ground as follows: Suppose that a multiverse was real. Every universe in the multiverse would be determined by the collection of all the individual decisions that people make. But the beginning of all of these universes would be the Garden of Eden. The end of all these universes would be Revelation. And every one of these universes would converge in the history that we find in the Bible—in particular, in the life, death, resurrection, and return of Jesus Christ.
Obviously, just because we can imagine such a multiverse doesn’t mean it is true (except where all these universes converge). But again, God is God, and He who created the heavens and the earth, He who is the Giver of life, He who knit each and every one of us in our mothers’ wombs, He who is the Savior of our souls, the Author of our salvation, the Forgiver of our sins … all things are possible with Him.
I have voted. And I encourage everyone to vote their conscience—or not vote according to your conscience, but more so, I encourage everyone to vote. And more than that, I encourage everyone to pray for peace in the aftermath of this election. Because God is God, and He calls us to pursue peace. And I encourage everyone to repent on behalf of our country and pray for the salvation of all the lost souls in our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
God is God, and whatever universe we find ourselves in, that is God’s will for us.
Father, forgive us—even Your church. We have strayed so far from Your ways. We confess that we have turned away from You and turned to the ways of the world—trusting the ways of humans rather than trusting in Your word. In the aftermath of this election, we ask for reasonable minds and calm hearts. We ask for peace. With the peace that You give, inspire and mobilize us to bear witness to our Lord Jesus Christ. In His precious name. Amen.
