Pointing politicians to the Yellow Brick Road

CHRISTIAN POLITICIANS.

Let’s assume they:

• exist—in the various political parties
• want to make the country a better place
• aren’t afraid to do the right thing even if it could cost them re-election.

Let’s brainstorm a vision for them.

When my pastor, Adam Hamilton, preached to the president on Tuesday, at the Inaugural Prayer Service, he asked him to do one thing in particular:

“Help us re-discover a vision for America that is so compelling it unites us and calls us to realize the full potential of this country, to be a shining city upon a hill.”

Adam told the president about how our church has done it.

We’re a Kansas church pretty evenly split, politically.

In terms of the Wizard of Oz characters with missing body parts, we have what I think of as:

• Cowardly Lions: Democrats (no backbone)
• Tin Men: Republicans (no heart)
• Scarecrows: Tea Party (no brain)

At least that’s how I’ve stereotyped the parties during the past several years.

Yet in our church, we’ve found causes to unite us in such a way that I can’t tell a Democrat working beside me from a Republican.

We’re both:

• building a ramp for a lady who couldn’t otherwise make it out of her house.
• painting a deck for an elderly gent.
• hanging a storm door for someone on our city’s list of needy folks.
• cleaning the kitchen of a single lady going through chemotherapy.
• loading food into backpacks for inner-city kids so they can eat healthy over the weekend.

We’re a congregation of cowardly Lions, stone-cold Tin Men, and rattled Scarecrows. Working as a team. Because we have a vision.

That leaves me wondering. What vision could we as a nation re-discover that would unite and energize us?

I’ll start the brainstorming of ideas that would energize me. You finish it.

• Healthcare. Make it free for all and the best in the world again.
• Education. How about free college for everyone who could make the grade, just as we provide education for grades K-12.
• A license for parents. We’ve got to go through training to drive. I’d love to see some required training for parents before their kids are released from the hospital.
• Transportation. When I was a kid we developed the interstate highway system. How about we upgrade to an interstate high-speed rail system.
• Poverty and homelessness. Why don’t we figure out a way to give everyone access to food, clothing, and a roof over their head? Other countries have.
• Moon station. Then Mars. It’s time to leave the nest and explore God’s creation. Make it so.

Some 2,000 years ago Peter told a crowd in Jerusalem that the time has come when:

Your sons and daughters will speak what God has revealed.
Your young men will see visions.
Your old men will dream dreams.
In those days
I will pour my Spirit on my servants, on both men and women.
They will speak what God has revealed.
I will work miracles in the sky and give signs on the earth (Acts 2:17-19, GWT).

I’m ready for a miracle.

Why not pray that our politicians can latch onto a vision—even if it’s just one?

Something that will rekindle the passion of our nation.

Any ideas out there?

What vision do you think could unite and energize our people?

What would excite you?