Today, on Election Day in Michigan it is unseasonably warm, and completely overcast. Nevertheless, my heart is singing! I feel light as a feather, and I am filled with joy!
What has made me so happy, you ask? Well, I voted.
I came home with my “I voted” sticker, and suddenly wanted to celebrate. I wanted a red, white and blue doughnut sporting a miniature United States flag on a toothpick! I wanted to hug someone!
I really don’t know why I felt so jubilant except that things have felt so strange, in this free country. It IS a free country, isn’t it? This good ol’ United States of America where anyone can grow up to be president? Where we have inalienable rights?
What exactly does that mean, “inalienable rights?” Webster defined it as “that {which} cannot be legally or justly alienated or transferred to another.”
I figured that inalienable meant “not to be alienated,” but I had no idea it meant rights aren’t able to be “legally or justly” transferred. That means they really are your own rights, given by God to all, without distinction. No matter what anyone says or does, your inalienable rights are legally and justly ONLY yours.
Have you ever considered how many men died just so that you could have those rights? (When someone dies for something, they aren’t doing it for themselves. ) They died for you. And part of what they secured for you was the right to vote.
As I was listening to some of the reporting today, the anchorman was talking about the impossibility of 100% turnout. Impossible? Yes, because things come up. People die. Accidents happen. People get sick. And sometimes people are apathetic.
Have you ever stopped traffic to let someone get in line ahead of you, but they refused to go? I bet most of us have. There is a healthy percentage of people who will not let anyone do anything for them. I won’t assume to understand all the reasons why that is so, but I do know it is.
Have you heard of the story of Sir Walter Raleigh, who, though he was not rich, threw his beautiful new cloak over the mud puddle so that Queen Elizabeth I could step across? But what if, instead of accepting his sacrifice, she went around! I bet he would be embarrassed, and think twice about offering that to anyone else again.
How much worse, though, would it be to die for someone, but they won’t accept what you did for them or take advantage of it?
Our military heroes are just men, but they gave themselves (their future, their rightful place as husbands and fathers and all they dreamed to do in their lives), so that we could be free here in the US. When we exercise our rights, like when we vote, or speak up about something important, we pay homage to those who died to secure those rights.
Just like Sir Raleigh, they can’t take back the sacrifice if no one takes advantage of the gift. That ship has sailed. The cloak is ruined. The life has been given.
Brave men died to secure our liberty. But Jesus Christ died to give you an inalienable right to know God, and to live forever. Jesus called this being “born again.” If you believe in him (in who he is and what he has done for you), you receive your birthright, and it cannot be transferred to someone else.
Jesus paid the price for your sin, and once you understand that, you have a choice. If you believe Jesus, you can walk over his body to step over sin and death the way Queen Elizabeth stepped across Sir Raleigh’s cloak to shield her feet from the mud. It seems so amazing, but Jesus literally laid down his life for you. And when you trust him to take away your sin, you can step over death into your inalienable birthright as a child of God.
You are being given the chance to step across addiction, step across broken relationships, step across the pain of separation from God and come into a life everlasting! And forever begins when you respond to the longing God puts in your heart to be with him with a resounding “YES!”
Jesus will rebuild your heart into something new and tender. It will become a responsive organ, sensitive and loving. Only our Creator God can create a clean heart in you. And he wants to do it, because it is not his will that any should perish.
But we don’t have unlimited time to make a decision about Jesus whenever we feel like it. That’s one of our wicked heart’s oldest tricks in the book. The idea that we can put off the decision and wallow around in the mud a little while longer could be suicide.
Why? Because no one can come to God unless he calls them first. And none of us can control that part. He speaks with a still, small voice, but if you are quiet, and you listen, you can hear it. You can feel it when the longing starts. But God is also a person, and he doesn’t like to be rejected any more than you do. Please don’t take him for granted.
My brother’s recent prayer was “God, please break my heart for you,” and that’s so beautiful. I’m sure he was inspired by God to pray that. We cannot fully understand the depth of God’s love for us, but when we pray for wisdom, we know he hears us. And my brother reported that God did break his heart and that the brokenness allowed his love for God to grow.
It’s not too late! If you feel a tugging on your heart, run to him and live!
The Fullers Four 