I just came from the polling place. I’ve voted for many years and I’ve never seen the polls so busy. I generally stop in to vote on my way to work and usually I’m one of the first 10 voters of the day at that location. Today I got there, a local Lutheran church, and people were lined up outside waiting to get in. It was hard finding a parking space. Vehicles were parked on the lawn. One lady even pulled right up to the entrance steps to park. Obviously, this election was important to a lot more people than any other in my voting history.
Now, I’m not a political analyst, but there has been a lot of talk about how everyone’s vote counts, about how historic this election will be with the outcome being either the first black president or the first female vice president, and about how close the pre-election polls have been or not been (depending on your source). I’ve heard many people say they don’t like either of the major political candidates, some will vote for the lesser of two evils, some will vote for someone who doesn’t stand a chance in protest. Whatever each one standing in line used as their motivation for being there, one thing was certain, they would have just driven past this church after seeing such a line if they didn’t care about the outcome.
But what really bothered me is that I don’t see the church parking lot, and not just this church, full beyond capacity for a Sunday morning service, or even for Christmas and Easter. Sure, people will go to a church recognizing that this is a one time chance at affecting the very near future of this great country. They don’t similarly recognize that they need to go there to affect their own future and that of their families and friends and the world in which we live. Maybe there will be other chances for that, but they neglect their own immediate need for change.
Both of the major candidates ran on a platform of change, but the occupant of the White House cannot make as significant a change in America as the Son of God can when He occupies the hearts and homes of all Americans. Not every polling place is a church, but a significant number of them are. We pray that people will realize that they need to go there more often and for more reasons than to vote.
At the end of the day today there will not be newscasts about how many churches collapsed because certain people walked through the doors. That’s one less excuse for people to use for not going to church.
Tracy Henness
