The Power Of Grace
A Quick Timeout from Two Things True
I have a few different “Two Things True” columns in the hopper. However, I didn’t feel motivated to publish them these last several weeks before the election. Everyone is tired and exhausted. I prefer fresher and more relaxed minds to think about difficult subjects that defy easy headlines.
Instead, I’d like to take a quick second to ask everyone to extend some Grace. I believe grace is the most important value to demonstrate in my Christian faith. You can forgive, love, and show mercy to people whether they “deserve” it or not, just like God does for us.
Tomorrow the election will happen and at some point we will have a winner. I have friends and some family who fit in all these categories:
Passionately support Harris and think she is a good candidate
Holding their nose to support Harris as the lesser of two evils
Won’t vote for president because they think both options are bad
Holding their nose to support Trump as the lesser of two evils
Passionately support Trump and think he is a good candidate
I know good people in each category. I know people who love their families, are strong in their community, and love their country in each category. I know serious Christians in each category.
I am asking you to extend grace to people who aren’t in your numbered place above. You don’t know why they are voting the way they are. A huge fallacy I saw as an elected official is when someone else confidently assumed your motive or even your intelligence / research behind a vote or position. You don’t know. The “if you vote for X that means you support Y” is a fallacy. There are dozens of Ys to consider and our choices of X are limited (yes, I punned Y and “why”).
We are all going to need to live together in our big beautiful but messy country the next four years. Give it a shot to show that grace. Try to take negative emotions and channel it into doing some things locally to help your community.
This “W” quote below is one of my favorites, and I think is a significant cause of much of the pain and vitriol we see around us. It fits for this season. I’ll be back after a few weeks with some more “Two Things True” to continue my series.
Part of me still hopes you have a category of "sincerely support and vote for a third party candidate" too - even though I'm not even in that category anymore. Well said regarding people having good faith disagreements based on different priorities even when their values aren't so vastly different.
Loved this. Thanks for sharing, Mike. Couple favorites of mine:
"If you are criticizing others, you are weakening the Church. If you are building others, you are building the kingdom of God. As Heavenly Father is kind, we also should be kind to others."
I think in that ^ context, you can read the "Church" as the body of Christ.
Disagreeing, even doing so passionately, can be done courteously, with grace and with respect. Contention is not of Christ. We need more compassion and patience in the world, and especially in this country right now. We need more Grace.