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Pick Your Punishment

Pick Your Punishment

Last updated on: October 11, 2016 at 8:39 pm by Brenda Renee Coats

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Pick Your Punishment 2016-10-11T20:39:00-07:00 Brenda Renee Coats

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This election, like several recent past elections, has been referred to as an election of choice – the choice between the lesser of two evils.

To a degree, I agree.

I don’t prefer either candidate. In fact, I’ve not preferred any presidential candidate for decades. But here I am again. Four weeks left until the election, and I don’t know how I’m going to cast my vote, because my choices are deplorable.

You know the dilemmas:

Vote for Clinton, get a crook.

Vote for Trump, get a television reality show filled with smut.

Vote for Johnson, get a jellyfish (no spine).

I don’t know anything of Johnson that could be considered evil, but I think it’s safe to say that Trump and Clinton are both evil – in different ways.

And so, what we need to realize is this:

We aren’t so much being required to vote for the lesser of two evils as we are being required to pick our punishment.

When my kids were little, I would at times let them choose their punishment.

“Do you want to clean your sister’s bedroom for a week, or do you want to be grounded for three days?”, I would ask. “If you choose grounding? No tv. No friends. No phone. And if you choose the cleaning, the room will be checked by yours truly.” Sometimes the punishments were equally yucky to them, and sometimes, there was clearly one punishment that registered as the yuckiest of all punishments. Ever.

For me, as a parent, the process would clarify some heart things about my child so that I would know how to deal with them in the future.

This is what I think is, in part, happening with America right now. God is asking us what we want, to an extent. But mostly, He’s just asking us to pick our punishment.

It’s not fun. Or funny. It’s judgment. It’s discipline. And we feel like it’s yucky. But as my brother often says …

It is what it is.

Nothing is going to change in the next month. Voting for a third party is an option, but at that point, you’ve not really answered the Lord’s question, and He will make the decision for you. Fact is, next POTUS will either be Clinton or Trump. My heart wishes it would work for those who don’t support either candidate to vote third party (whether Johnson or another candidate – heck, Mickey Mouse would be better in my opinion), and have that vote actually make a difference. But it’s not going to happen. Until we find a way to lead a half way decent, third party crusade in a fashion that assures voters they aren’t simply rebels who won’t get their way, the winner will remain either a Democrat or Republican.

So.

We are stuck.

We have been given an ultimatum: Trump or Clinton.

We have been told, “You are in trouble. But you get to pick your punishment.”

My advice is to do just that. Bend over, and take the deserved swats. Pray for mercy!! But just do what you know you can’t escape from. In other words, man up. Get your big girl panties on. Or however you want to say it. But don’t stay home. Vote. And don’t play like a third party will win. They won’t. If you MUST vote third party because of your conscience, then I encourage you to do so. It’s still a possibility for me (though I won’t vote Johnson). But I will do so knowing that I’m not really answering the question God is asking.

I think this election is largely about God telling us He’s done holding back. He is so incredibly patient and merciful. But there comes a time when He gives us over to ourselves. For a long time, we’ve been telling God to back off. We can do it ourselves. We don’t need you. We want to kill babies. We want to depend on the government for our needs. We want to act out our sexuality in whatever way we please. We want men to marry men and women to marry women. Some have even said they prefer Allah over Jesus. And Trump and Clinton are His way of saying “As you wish.”

One more story and I will close.

When I was about eight, the ceiling light cover in my bedroom got broken. It was one of those glass covers everyone had in the 70’s. When I walked into my room from playing outside, glass was all over my bed. Holy smokes, Mom was mad. She asked me and my brothers several times who did it. We all three denied having anything to do with the situation.

“Broken glass does not just happen on it’s own! Someone threw a baseball at it or something. Someone is lying! Who is it?”

Again and again, we denied it. To this day, I don’t know if either brother did it. All I know is that I didn’t do it.

Well, Mom decided to deal with it like a school teacher often does when one student misbehaves, but she’s unsure which one. She punished all of us until someone ‘fessed up.

I loathe that type of punishment, because every time I’ve been subject to it (not that often), I’ve been innocent. Perhaps that is how some Christians are feeling during this election – that judgment and punishment are coming, and they haven’t done wrong.

Well, first I’d like to say I understand. I have fought against immorality, I’ve prayed for repentance, I’ve done some repenting of my own, I’ve always voted pro-life, pro-aged, pro-handicapped. I’m a church goer. I read and study my Bible. I’ve tried to love God and raise my kids to love God. And on and on I could go. You probably could, too, and it just feels so stinking unfair that you will be punished for living in a country full of rebels. You’ve spent most of your life as a God-fearing citizen. You want God back in our schools, our churches (yes, He’s been kicked out of there at times), our courts, and most importantly, our hearts. To all of that, I’d say, keep on keepin’ on. We will reap if we faint not.

Second, I’d like to say that I think that though we’re under the impression that we’ve tried our best, we all need to search our own hearts. The easiest thing to do when punishment is inevitable is to point the finger. Since Adam and Eve, we have been blame shifters. That is the bent of human hearts. And so – search the person you see in the mirror. Figure ought what you need to repent of, keep praying for nation wide repentance, and leave the rest in God’s hands, knowing that He remains on the throne. He still loves you. He will never leave or forsake you. He loves you with an everlasting love. He’s not going to deliver you from punishment this time, but He knows which punishment you should pick. He knows what He wants you to learn from this election. And He knows what you need to repent of. There’s always something. And pointing bony (or fat!) fingers doesn’t do anyone any good. The only thing anyone can ever do is work on themselves, and pray that others will do the same.

Prayer is for the powerless, and in case you’re fallen asleep reading this, “the powerless” would be you and I in this historical moment.

If My people will who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. 2 Chron. 7:14

God hasn’t promised America those things, specifically, but it shows us His heart. It shows us He delights in forgiving and hearing and healing, if we will but humble ourselves, pray, and repent.

So that’s my encouragement to you today. This is a rather elementary post, but sometimes I think we get too head-y in our assessment of political issues. God has cleared the muddy waters for me today, and I hope through me, He has done the same for you.

Much love to you all as you battle your way through voting decisions, repentance, prayer, and pride.

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