Well, some will be delighted that their party has been elected to govern….others will be disappointed …. A good proportion of the nation will feel their vote doesn’t count as they live in Someone’s ‘safe seat’ …. A significant minority of people will not have voted at all. But at least we have some sort of choice to decide who should be our political leaders for the next few years….and who leads us, what their motivations are and how they exercise the authority entrusted to them will impact on us all.
Whilst we may feel we have little choice in who leads us politically, each and everyone of us has real choice as to who governs us within. This month the church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus, some seven weeks after God raised Him from the tomb.
The Holy Spirit comes to make the invisible Lord of all real in our lives, showing us God’s love, His understanding of us, and to empower us to be fully human , becoming in character more like the man Jesus, and building us together in community: He has a hard job!
Now, we don’t have to welcome Him into our lives; we can live as our own ‘boss’, living, speaking, and doing as we think best. My sense is that God, our creator, has much better qualifications to be the inspiration in my day to day living than I on my own will ever have! What is more, I value enormously the way He continues to build me together with others who really welcome his presence in their lives.
This is a ‘vote’ each of us has the power to make, which really does impact on everything in our daily lives, for now, and in the long run for eternity. So who might it be that governs within in the life that is yours?
With my greetings, Jim Stevens