As some of you may already know, politics has played a huge part in my life, it still does in many aspects. When I came to Christ in 2015, I could already see the links, me being so active in the political world lead me to Christ, I realized that now. However, in my experience (understanding that everyone has different experiences and situations), this triggered a huge problem for me, my conversion was steady, it didn’t come to me overnight, so I still had a huge love for politics and the idea of giving that up seemed impossible with everything that was going on in the world. What was I supposed to do? Give up everything that I had researched, worked on, written on, I spent years meeting new people, writing articles on foreign policy, wars in the middle east. Was I ready to give that all up? For the benefit of my own sanity, I certainly was.
Now, I certainly didn’t make this decision over night, politics was still a golden calf for me at the time, devoting more time to political problems rather than devotions to Christ. It’s so easy to be caught up in the world’s problems, so many angles, so many stories, which side is telling the truth? Are they all in on it? What’s the point? Things will just get worse anyway. These are some of the criticisms of politics, I dived in so fast I became known in bigger circles because of the things I was talking about, really controversial issues that almost cost me my reputation, it was so easy to talk about it, so easy to create a story and turn it into a political debate, after all, it was my job.
Fast forward a couple of months, reading my Bible, I’d came across the passage “God ordains whatsoever shall come to pass”, then it hit me. This was what I needed, to draw me out, to bring me closer to Christ and in my devotions to Him, I was too busy trying to change the world thinking if I try and combine my political life with my faith life, everything would be great and the world would start to change, oh how wrong I was. Why was it so hard for me to understand? I knew the secular elites controlled the political game, so why was I still trying to interlock my faith with politics? Now this isn’t a discouragement to anyone who is a Christian that wants to get involved in politics, I would encourage people to take an interest in politics, but please, please, don’t try and do what I tried to do.
I am encouraged by the number of Christians who are involved in politics, but I would stress, not to let it become an idol, we only serve one master, and He is in control of everything, you cannot change the secular world, you cannot change the political landscape by applying your faith to it, it simply won’t work. Instead, what I would suggest, is to draw closer to Christ, trust in Him, and not with the solutions of man, oh if only e had a more conservative leader, or more traditional values, everything would be fine. The only thing that will change the world, is a revival and a movement of repentance among the people. Don’t leave the Bible to one side when you want to pursue something different, but instead, apply it to your life, apply a Biblical model to your life, and you may change hearts and minds, but without that, your worldview is not based on a foundation, and what happens to things that have no foundation? They fall down. Choose wisely how you approach politics, and political debate, choose your words wisely, are you aiming to please Christ, or man? I made that mistake once, I learned from it.
Now, I merely spectate, observing from afar, anything that interests me, it will always remain a part of me, without forgetting my new life in Christ, wisdom goes a long way, so does experience, I will always be learning, but one thing I will never forget, from now on, will be to put Christ first in everything.
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