Dear Saints,

Before writing this message I was waiting on the outcome of the presidential election yesterday. But this morning it seems we still don’t know for sure and it occurred to me that it really doesn’t matter. The message I have is not dependent on who the president is or what the political landscape in our nation looks like. This is not to suggest political apathy or indifference, but to focus on a deeper issue concerning God’s eternal plan for humanity and his power to fulfill that plan in his own time. It finally boils down to the single question of who is really in charge of our destiny. And can we live with that?

Each of us has a natural desire to control people, situations, and circumstances hoping to make ourselves secure and significant by our own efforts. This primal drive of self-preservation takes many forms depending on the culture we live in, but the goal remains the same. In the political process we choose to give power and control over to those we think will best achieve our basic goal of self-preservation and represent our personal interests. All politicians promise to use the power and control you give them to insure your personal security and significance through their policies and directives. All politicians fail to keep that promise. No matter how hard they try to give you a personal sense of security and significance, they simply can’t deliver.

What we have been trying to do for ourselves and elect others do for us can only be done by Jesus. When he miraculously fed the multitudes he proved he is more than capable to satisfy our deepest need for personal security and significance. As he explained in the synagogue of Capernaum he wasn’t just giving them a free lunch but illustrating how he could satisfy the hunger we each have for security and the thirst we have for significance. After declaring that he was the bread of life he went on to say, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” And again, “He that eats my flesh , and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him.” (John 5: 53, 56)

What Jesus was telling us is that our personal security and significance comes only from being one with him. Because we are in him and he is in us we have eternal life that can never be taken by people, situations, or circumstances. Our personal security and significance does not rest on our own efforts to control and neither does it depend on the control we give to others. It comes only from the fact that we are one with Jesus. The immediate response of the disciples was, “This is a hard saying, who can hear it?” because they, like us, had been conditioned all their lives to depend on their own performance, the approval of others, and everything except their union with Jesus to satisfy their need for security and significance as persons.

While it is , indeed, a “hard saying” it is the absolute truth. Only our personal relationship with Jesus can give us the security and significance we crave in this world. Only Jesus and who or what he provides for us at any given time will satisfy these deep personal needs. The very heart of the gospel message is that God has done everything necessary to make you secure in his love and significant in his eternal plan. I’m not going to trust a political candidate to meet these needs, but rather my personal savior, Jesus.

John