Ed Jones, Pastor
Above prayer, one of our duties as a Christian citizen is to vote. Proverbs 25:19 says that “Putting confidence (or voting for) in an unreliable man is like chewing with a sore tooth, or trying to run on a broken foot.” God wills us to put our trust in people of character. We see that after the death of Saul, and later Absalom, the public rallied around David as their king (2 Samuel 1-5 and 2 Samuel 15-19). This is what our vote is. It is our pledge of confidence, our rallying around the candidate we believe God has given to lead us.
Failure to vote is a growing concern here in the United States. And the question is, why? Oh, we like to say that our little vote can’t make any difference. But in 1645 one vote gave Oliver Cromwell control of England. In 1776 one vote gave America the English language instead of German. In 1824 one vote gave John Quincy Adams the presidency of the United States. In 1923 one vote gave Adolph Hitler leadership of the Nazi party. In 1941 one vote saved the selective service system just 12 weeks before Pearl Harbor.
Another excuse we give for refusing to vote is that we don’t like any of the candidates. Imagine for a moment you’re an American citizen about to vote in an election in the late 1700s. Shall you vote for George Washington, a rich Virginia landowner with wooden false teeth, a powdered white wig, who is a politically inexperienced general? Or will your candidate be Thomas Jefferson, a college dropout and political extremist? Shall your vote go to John Adams, a rabble-rousing Harvard lawyer? Or what about the young and immature James Madison? Or Ben Franklin, the guy who stands out in the rain flying a kite? Undoubtedly today we expect too little of ourselves and too much from our leaders.
Allow, if you will, the story of one man who decided to make a difference: A visit to Winchester Cathedral in England reveals a bronze statue of a deep-sea diver in the narthex. It’s a tribute to the man, Davey Jones, who single handedly saved the building from collapse. Winchester was sinking on its foundations and in peril of caving in. That’s when Davey Jones, a diver, went down in a hole dug at the building’s foundation and shored up the edifice with pilings, stone, and cement. It was a ghastly job. The muck and water were pitch black. A small lantern was all he carried as he labored for years below the ground. But his work saved the foundation and saved Winchester Cathedral! One man, one “vote.”
Ed Jones pastors Fellowship at the Ranch Church at Robson Ranch. This nondenominational church meets at the Robson Clubhouse on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. For information, visit Fellowship’s website, www.fellowshipattheranchchurch.com.