My wife, Charlotte, and I sat at the dining room table and opened our Official Ballots from the Maury County Election Commission.
We decided to do our ballots at the same time so as not to make a mistake. We had heard absentee or mail-in ballots could be rife with hidden traps that would disqualify a voter’s ballot and cause it to be trashed and not counted. So, we carefully opened the envelopes and, together, went down the list of instructions line by line.
She and I opened each envelope, marked our ballots, signed where we were supposed to, resealed our return envelopes, and found a couple of stamps. Then, I handed our ballots to our trusted longtime mailman, and we were done.
We don't have many responsibilities as citizens of the greatest republic the world has ever known. Mostly, we just enjoy the advantages our way of government has given us. Yes, we pay taxes and occasionally have to take off work for jury duty. And if we argue vehemently over the direction our country should take every four years, that is a right our government has given us as well.
A national election is coming Tuesday, November 3, the likes of which our country has not seen since 1860. Now, I know every election cycle we hear the same hyperbole about how dire and vital that year's particular election might be. This year might live up to the billing.
During the last national election in 2016, nearly 25 million Christians did not vote. About 1 in 5 self-professed eligible Christians do not even bother to register to vote. In a world where most Christians are persecuted and oppressed by governments they cannot change, our voting habits in the United States are a travesty and a disgrace.
Jesus said in Matthew 22:21, “Therefore render to Ceasar the things that are Ceasar's, and to God the things that are God's.” We owe it to our fellow Christians around the world who live under governments that hate them for their faith, but who are powerless to change it, to exercise the most fundamental right we have as Americans.
Get out and VOTE.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
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Kevin Spencer likes to play with words, help others play with them, and is privileged to be a staff writer for Christian Devotions. He lives with his beautiful blessing of a wife, Charlotte, and his amazing collegiate grandson, Caleb.