Why I left politics

     After people hear about my experience in politics in a very cool job with very cool people doing very cool work they usually ask why I left. I tell them this. (This does relate to our Scripture study, I promise.)

     I explain that there was a variety of reasons, but chief among them was the moment it dawned on me that even if we have the absolute best form of government in the world, with checks and balances, etc, if the heart of the voting people of this country goes bad what hope is there?  If people vote for what is best for them giving us our representatives and president, who choose our judges based on what we want and who develop our laws based on what we want, we’re lost. By the time I left my think tank I had co-founded a grass-roots organization with 25,000 people that I wrote to every other week and had them take action in some way on something that I felt would make a difference—but if the hearts of the people become hard, as we're trending, what chance can we have of a just and loving society? That moment of realization was when I set my heart towards seminary.

     Okay, so follow me here. The Israelites were in an amazing country—we still visit Egypt today to see the remnants of that culture. But look at the Israelites’ experience there: forced to make bricks without straw. What they did was never appreciated or enough (Ex 2:23, 24 and 5).  They had become a “use.” Samuel’s words to Israel are the same—you will become a use, a slave, if you choose a glorious king who cares only for his own welfare and not the welfare of the people (1 Sam 8). They left Egypt to serve the holy God on his holy mountain, who delighted in blessing them and being in friendship with them (Ex 24:9-11).

     So back to my politics analogy. America is great but if the rulers, who are the people in this democratic republic, if the rulers’ hearts are heartless and only out for what's best for them we’re in big trouble. I left a great job, not because it wasn’t needed, but because I want to serve in whatever way I can to see that our nation’s people don’t turn each other into slaves for their own self-interest.  May God give His Church the power of His Spirit to be a light of true love to the world.