Hope and Change

This post is written first to myself, Caleb Sommerville, and then to the tens of people that will read this.
The two words up for the prize of Buzzwords of the Decade.
Hope and Change.
The question no one (seriously) asks of Obama's catchphrase is this: Hope in what? Change of what? What are we supposed to be placing hope in? What exactly needs change and what does that entail?


It's no secret that I tend to agree more with conservative ideas. But give me a chance, Olbermann. And Beck, you're not off the hook either.
Don't get me wrong. Both political sides are equally guilty of placing hope in something incorrect. The Right is hell-bent on ousting the Left, and the Left is hell-bent on accomplishing its self-imposed agenda. Both have said outright that if the other succeeds, we are all doomed.
What is startling is that no one will admit that both sides are ideologically clinging to something that will ultimately doom us.
They trust, ultimately, in themselves.
And so do we.
Perhaps it is only my age, and the fact that I haven't been alive (or aware) during many large elections. But in all the events leading up to Tuesday, I've noticed something crucial missing from all arguments. Both political sides of the political spectrum are operating under the presumption that politics is It.
"They have put the kind of hope in their political leaders and policies that once was reserved for God and the work of the gospel," Tim Keller writes in his book Counterfeit Gods.
And there's the rub.
The political junkies of this country have been idolizing politics. And maybe this has always been true (probably so), but I'm just now noticing it. Perhaps it's because of friends I have that are heavily involved in campaigns, or other acquaintances that are virulent defenders of things I don't agree with. Either way, I am acutely aware of the human tendency to idolize literally anything other than God.
Throughout the past few months, we have been told that Glenn Beck is evil, and trying to divide the country. We have been told that President Obama (who is still our President, by the way) is the Anti-Christ, bent on destroying our country. We have been told that we have seen the enemy, and he is us. Keller quotes a Dutch-Canadian philosopher named Al Wolters:
"The great danger is to single out some aspect or phenomenon of God's good creation and identify it, rather than the alien intrusion of sin, as the villain in the drama of human life..."
And then Wolters pegs it. He says exactly what the political junkies and this entire nation needs to keep in mind next week, especially on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
"The Bible is unique in its uncompromising rejection of all attempts to...identify part of creation as either the villain or the savior."
We are all constantly guilty of placing ultimate importance on things other than God. Don't believe me? Consider this very election.
What will happen if the Republicans win, liberals? What will happen when Congress is relegated to a gridlocked shouting match? Will the country suffer and continue in recession?
And conservatives, what will happen if the Democrats hold the House and Senate? Is all hope lost? Will our country be destroyed?
My answer is simple, and wholly reliant on God and the truth of His Gospel:
I don't know.
The Gospel is wonderful in that way. The fact that we are all born so screwy and "jacked up" and that God still sent His Son, Jesus Christ to "live the life we should have lived and die the death we should have died," to borrow a common phrase among my friends, is mind-blowingly comforting and humbling. Each human is no different from the last, in terms of God's grace. We are all screwed up, and we all deserve hell. But through Christ, those who trust in Him are reversed; Christ's righteousness is counted to us.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is all that matters. Not the election, not whoever's in the White House, not how much money we have in our bank account, not the clothes we wear ("You are not your $!@#ing khakis!" -Tyler Durden).
The Grace of God levels us all. "Then you will not take pride in one man over against another. For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?" Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4:6-7.
"We are not nearly as responsible for our success as our popular views of God and reality lead us to think," Keller writes.
So come next Tuesday, (and I'm talking as much to myself here as I am to my tens of readers) be careful where your hope is. Is your hope in your "side" winning, or is your hope in the Gospel, and the amazing fact that we as Christians are redeemed through Christ?