In God We Trust… Maybe

In God We Trust… Maybe

The motto on the currency in the United States of America is “In God We Trust,” but more and more it does not seem to be true. When God is removed from our homes and hearts, He gets replaced. Most often, God is replaced by government. If we follow this premise to its conclusion, we get political violence. Without faith that God has things under control, then the impetus is on us to fix the problems.

The Most Important Election

I am confident that the individual responsible for the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump believes himself to be a hero. He has wholeheartedly believed the inflammatory rhetoric that the politicians spew day after day. And, at twenty years old, he had not been around long enough to recognize that this is the same rhetoric they use EVERY election.

Many people believe that the hateful and divisive rhetoric began with Donald Trump. But this did not start with Trump. I am nearly forty, and every election of my adult life has been touted as “the most important election of our lives.”

Comparing Trump to Hitler is also, unfortunately, not something new either. When George W. Bush was in office, he was often compared to Hitler and labeled a fascist. Furthermore, I recall even books and news articles detailing how to assassinate him and what would happen if he were to be assassinated.

But this is all simple rhetoric. The people engaging in this damaging language are stating things they do not believe to drive people out to vote for them. If they were honest and said that life would go on, and some things would be better with them and some things would be worse, then they would probably lose. There would not be motivation for many people to go out and vote.

We Cannot Survive as a Nation if…

To believe that if the “wrong” person is elected president is short-sighted, ignorant of history, and self-aggrandizing. It is short-sighted because it looks only at the immediate future. It is an adolescent view of life. Teenagers believe their problems are the biggest, most important problems in the world ever. This is understandable because teenagers are still learning and growing. It is unacceptable for our political class to exaggerate the problems with the nation and their disagreements with their opponents to be the biggest, most important problems in the world ever.

This is incredibly ignorant, not only of world history but also of American history. Would we compare the problems we face now with those of the Civil War, the Great Depression, or World Wars I and II? Do we still have issues that need solutions? Absolutely, but that does not make them on the same scale as those giant problems throughout history.

This is because we take an outsize view of our own importance. Faith in God keeps us humble about our place in this world. We recognize God as being in control of the world. But if we remove that faith that God has everything under control, then that launches us and our politicians into the position of God and having to fix everything.

In God We Trust

The solution to this is simple. We trust in God. Whether the person we are rooting for wins or loses, we know that it is God who “changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others.” (Daniel 2:21).

With this as our foundation, we can withstand the unscrupulous claims that Donald Trump is an “existential threat to our democracy.” We can brush those claims off, knowing that I might be doing better financially with one president or another, but it is always well with my soul. We can learn “the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” (Philippians 4:11).

It is our responsibility to vote. God has graced us with incredible abundance in the United States. He has also graced us with the responsibility of choosing our own leadership class. But that does not mean that it is not God who raises up leaders and brings them low. If we vote our conscience but still lose, we trust that God knows what He is doing. He is raising a different leader from the one we wanted. It can mean that we will experience more troubles because of it.

Our faith in God is the driving force of our contentment. Not our politicians.

A Godless Nation is a Violent Nation

Without God, the result is what we have seen recently: Dangerous rhetoric meant to drive people to vote, resulting in the entirely predictable effect of an attempted assassination. If the politicians do not change their tactics, then we can expect even more violence.

This seems hopeless, but it is not. I do not expect politicians to change their tactics. It is too easy for them to label their opponents as “bad” instead of actually engaging in policy debates. But we do not need for them to change.

We need to trust in God. A simple faith in knowing that God raises up leaders and brings them down is all that is necessary. Then, even when “our side” loses, we know it is not out of control because God is in control.