Oohh, what a hangover

It's the morning after and I have such a hangover.  I latched onto the election coverage around 10:00pm last night and guzzled until almost midnight.  Then started again a little after 6:00 this morning.  It finally lured me into a dull inebriation nearing despair.

I'm American born and American bred, and when I die I'll be American dead and I believe and endorse the structure of government set forth by the founding fathers, a representative democracy.  Unfortunately I haven't been represented in either the US government nor the Maryland government for years.  Redistricting has made it impossible for me to be accurately or even vaguely represented because I'm lumped into a largely urban population.  The politicians elected by that group don't represent me at all.

I find myself relating more and more with the Jewish Christians of the first century church politically speaking.  They were governed by the Romans who basically ignored their culture as long as they paid their taxes and didn't make waves.  Their 'representatives' learned to play the game with the Romans to their personal benefit.  It's obvious from the way the various trials of Jesus, Peter and Paul were conducted that the Jewish leadership was very familiar with the 'good ol' boy' system as well as political 'winks and nods'.

The Christians of that era were certainly without political representation and they went on to change their world one witness at a time.  Sounds like a grassroots movement to me.  As I begin to recover from my stupor I'm reminded that God establishes governments and often uses them to push, pull or otherwise move His people.  And, I realize that it's not about an elected official representing me but about me representing my leader, the Lord Jesus Christ, like a star shining in the dark night of humanistic self aggrandizement  that surrounds me.