What I Wanted to Say.....

I've been writing this for probably an hour now, and nothing seems to work right. You see, what I wanted to do was to talk about how it's an election year and we're on a collision course with what could be "the most important election we've ever had" which is a junk drawer phrase to get you all riled up and angry. The pundits will rant and rave. Ads will be released and debates had. Blogs much better than mine will be written and it will all swell and rage until that fateful Tuesday night when we see the elections. 

And then life will go back to normal. 

Nothing will change. Everything will stay the same. Republicans will say that the Democrats are "reckless spenders who want to take away our guns and our Bibles" and Democrats will say that Republicans "hate the poor and are just on Big Corporation's payroll."

I wanted to say that we have to get past politics and focus on the Kingdom and the Christ who we serve, who is far much better than anyone who will ever hold office. I wanted to say that though we would never say we're political pagans, I know more pastors who post political articles that don't amount to anything than they do about how wonderful the Gospel is. 

I wanted to convince you that my apolitical mindset makes me a better Christian than you. But I can't do that. 

I can't do that because, I'm twenty-three.

I'm twenty-three. I've never seen the ocean. I've never left the country. I've never been skydiving. I've never climbed a mountain. I have a Bible degree that means nothing. I have not graduated from the University of Life with credentials good enough for you to listen to what I have to say. I have not earned the right to address anyone to convince you that my view is right, sound, and Biblical. I'm twenty-three. Blogger, Twitter, and Facebook I thought were a stump for me to speak on. Instead, it's my generation's noose that we'll hang ourselves on. We haven't lived long enough to speak yet, especially about things precious to Christ and His Church. We Young, Restless, and Reformed think we're God's gift to Gen Xers and Baby Boomers who have made much tougher decisions on matters of faith and practice. We may talk about going "deeper than soundbites" but we live, breathe for the next soundbite, blog post, or Facebook debate. 

I love going to presbytery. I fell in love with it the first time I ever heard a man address the full body: "Fathers and brothers". It struck me odd at first. "Why not just bothers?" Because there are men who fought for orthodoxy and the Gospel being preached right and full. They deserve the title of "Father" and I would not dare cross them. No one in our generation has lived long enough to think himself the new Luther, nor are those battles going to be fought on social media. I made a name for myself at CBC being the sharp tongued Calvinist who was good with words and loved to debate on Facebook and call people "evanjellyfish". I was a young arrogant boy who had not yet earned the time to speak. My generation loves the soundbite, but doesn't love the service.

Don't listen to me. Don't believe my opinion. I have not read, prayed, or lived enough to justify any position I hold. I am a young man. And what's best for me is to humbly submit myself to the spiritual authority of men who have earned the right to express their opinions and to speak in my life. 

So don't listen to me. I haven't earned the right to be listened to yet.