On our drive to the beach we passed a Jeep loaded with sun-soaked, smiling young men. And flapping in the breeze just as happily behind them were our nation’s Stars and Stripes and the Confederate flag. It truly baffles the mind. Even if you say it’s not about love and hatred, the two represent two totally different ideals. One stands for the Union; one for secession from that same Union. One interdependence, the other independence. One national pride, the other the pride of self-rule. How can you proudly support both?
For me, it’s like…
◊frying Songbird’s turkey bacon in bacon grease.
◊watching Lone Ranger hide her Littlest Pets from Brown Sugar and then share them with friends.
◊me posting about servanthood and whining about motherhood.
Contradictory flags a-wavin’ in air.
I don’t think today’s hot-button political issues boil down to North versus South, them versus us, Republican and Democrat, Liberal against Conservative. In God’s eyes we’re not opposites, separate, better, or less than. One label doesn’t save; the other doesn’t condemn. The answer is more black and white: we’re either for Him or against Him.
As a believer, my battlefield is in the spiritual realm and not at a national convention. When I wave my red-stained cross high above, behind, and before me, there’s no room for other flags, colors, and allegiances. It blocks out issues that distract me from my important purpose as a faithful citizen of God’s kingdom. It helps me forgive past and present sins and focus on what’s eternal over what’s temporal.
Heaven matters, people.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
