greatness

Sometimes I’m really grateful I live where I do. You see, in my town, most people want to serve. Most are focused on the good of  the community. Even the great people in my town are mostly down-to-earth people.

I think that makes this place different than most of America. Our culture is obsessively focused on personal power. Our movie heroes have it. So do the wealthy. In fact, the ability to dictate the terms of our own lives is one of the holy grails of American life. The idea that someone else can impose his will on us makes us angry. 

It just shows how far we are from thinking like Jesus. Luke tells a story in chapter 22:24-26 that reveals this disparity. “A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.’”

That’s an attitude that’s sadly lacking in this election year. I’m not talking about the candidates – their lust for power isn’t atypical of the kind of people likely to see national public office. I’m talking about average Americans, and people of faith. We’re obsessed with the power to appoint justices, to counter legislation, to decide who is let in and who is kept out. We want that power so much that sometimes we’re willing to compromise our Gospel witness to get it. Or we find after the fact that we’ve unintentionally done so.

I’m not arguing a particular vote here – the votes among my Christian friends are split among four candidates. I just wonder how many of us approach this or any other point of disagreement like young people who believe the other might be wiser, or like servants bound to please the other. 

To my shame, I haven’t. I lust after power for my tribe, just like most. I struggle to control the urge to straighten out those dummies who plan to vote for so-and-so. 

I'm grateful I live in this town. Here there are good people who want to serve each other more than they want to win an election. Here there are thoughtful people who want to talk things out. Here we mostly recognize we don’t have all the answers. 

I need to pray a little more  and love a little more before I can really claim all that is true of me, but sometimes it is. More and more I can see others as maybe wiser, and my role as serving. More and more I am able to live this lesson of Jesus, mostly because other people show me how. My town is part of Jesus’ grace to me.