“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'”

                                                        John 1:29

This election can’t be over soon enough. “Why?”, you ask? The commercials. I’m done with them. They come on, I change the channel, mute the TV, or go fill up my Yeti.

If I could get anything positive out of them it would be different. Where the candidate stands on the issues. What they believe. But all I get is an attack on someone else with political spin. Half-truths, distorted information. They even alter the way the opponent looks, going to black-and-white and slow motion to make the person look less appealing.

I pulled some information from the last election, and did my own little analysis, and the results were consistent.

-        50% of the commercials show clips of the opponent as the ad attacks them personally. You never even know (well, you do) who the ad is for until the very end because the person or party or PAC running the commercial is never named until when the color comes back and the candidate is seen with a smile saying he or she “approved this ad”.

-        40% of the commercials deal with an issue, but not where the person/party/PAC running the commercial stands. They are only saying that the opponent voted the wrong way.

-        10% - only one out of ten commercials – actually deal with why a person is running without attacking someone else.

Donkeys and Elephants. Blue States and Red States. Conservatives and Liberals. This nation continues to be divided because people get so mouth-foaming mad following the lead of the commercials and attacking someone. But those labels limit us as human beings by making us no more than political prey and a voter statistic.

It’s time for this country to come together., Way back in the 6^th century B.C., there lived a man named Aesop. He has remained famous for over 8,000 years because of the stories he told. In one fable called “The Four Oxen and the Lion”, he claimed as the moral of that story, “United we stand, divided we fall”. We would do well to remember that. We must remember that the kingdom of God is not a red state or a blue state, not liberal or conservative, not rich or poor, not black or white. The kingdom of God is righteousness and justice and love.

I encourage you to vote. This appears to be the most important election in a long time. Much is at stake. But when you walk into that voting booth (or fill out your ballot at home), in addition to the elephant and the donkey, remember the Lamb. Ask, “What would Jesus do?”, and “What does God want?” And then, through His leading, vote your conscience.  

"Father, Today we pray for our country as we elect the officials who will lead us.  In Jesus' name, AMEN."