Stewards of the Vote
By Hal Lindsey
Churchgoers often cringe at the word “stewardship” because they tend to associate it with sermons on money. But stewardship isn’t just about giving to God’s work. Dictionary.com defines a “steward” as, “A person who manages another’s property or financial affairs.”
Everything we have belongs to God. We are to act as God’s agents in managing those things. Do you remember the parable of the talents? A man going on a journey placed servants in charge of some of his wealth. He placed five talents in the hands of one, two in the hands of another, and put a third man in charge of one talent. He then held them responsible for how they handled his property.
So, what has God placed in your hand? Whoever you are, the list is long. And it probably includes money. With the money under your control, He expects you to take care of your family, meet obligations, pay taxes, support His work, etc. But it’s about more than money. We are custodians of all the things He has given us, including time, energy, strength, intelligence, and wisdom. Can you sing? Do you write poetry? We’re to be stewards of all the things He has placed in our hands.
For Americans, that includes the vote. If, over the last fifty years, all Christian believers had been voting regularly, this would be a different and better nation. As a group, God has given us an astounding level of power. And yet, many treat it as something they might take advantage of or might not, depending on how the day goes.
Do you remember the presidential election of 2000? It became clear early on that the winner of Florida would probably win the presidency. At 7:50 that evening, the Associated Press called Florida for Vice President Al Gore. The major TV networks quickly followed. By about 10 PM, things had changed. Governor Bush’s numbers were on the rise. The networks began retracting their earlier projections.
By 2:15 that morning, George W. Bush’s lead had risen to 50,000, and all the news organizations started calling both Florida and the nation for Bush. At 2:30 AM, Al Gore called George Bush to concede. It had been a strange night, but things seemed to be shaking out and beginning to look like a normal presidential election.
But by 3 AM, the Bush lead had fallen to a mere thousand votes. Gore called Bush again, this time to retract his earlier concession. And then America began a strange and unprecedented odyssey of counts, recounts, hanging chads, and election-related lawsuits — lots and lots of lawsuits. The weird journey ended on December 13th when Al Gore conceded again, this time in a nationally televised speech.
Americans were dumbfounded by the whole process. In an era when computers regularly handled fantastic levels of data in mere seconds, it took 36 days to learn who the next president would be. Our computers are far more sophisticated now, but the process has become even more inscrutable and chaotic. We should demand that local, state, and national leaders address voting problems in fair and common-sense ways.
In the meantime, we have another duty to perform. Vote! Bush officially won Florida by only 537 votes out of almost six million cast. Your vote matters. Vote like the nation’s future depends on it — because it does.
