{"id":47,"date":"2016-10-11T20:39:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T20:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/felixculpa\/2016\/10\/pick-your-punishment.html"},"modified":"2016-10-11T20:39:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T20:39:00","slug":"pick-your-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/felixculpa\/2016\/10\/pick-your-punishment.html","title":{"rendered":"Pick Your Punishment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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This election, like several recent past elections, has been referred to as an election of choice \u2013 the choice between the lesser of two evils.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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To a degree, I agree.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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I don\u2019t prefer either candidate. In fact, I\u2019ve not preferred any presidential candidate for decades. But here I am again. Four weeks left until the election, and I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m going to cast my vote, because my choices are deplorable.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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You know the dilemmas:\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Vote for Clinton, get a crook.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Vote for Trump, get a television reality show filled with smut.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Vote for Johnson, get a jellyfish (no spine).\u00a0<\/div>\n
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I don\u2019t know anything of Johnson that could be considered evil, but I think it\u2019s safe to say that Trump and Clinton are both evil \u2013 in different ways.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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And so, what we need to realize is this:<\/div>\n
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We aren\u2019t so much being required to vote for the lesser of two evils as we are being required to\u00a0pick our punishment.<\/i>\u00a0<\/div>\n
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When my kids were little, I would at times let them choose their punishment. \u00a0<\/div>\n
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\u201cDo you want to clean your sister\u2019s bedroom for a week, or do you want to be grounded for three days?\u201d, I would ask. \u201cIf you choose grounding? No tv. No friends. No phone. And if you choose the cleaning, the room will be checked by yours truly.\u201d Sometimes the punishments were equally yucky to them, and sometimes, there was clearly one punishment that registered as the yuckiest of all punishments. Ever.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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For me, as a parent, the process would clarify some heart things about my child so that I would know how to deal with them in the future.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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This is what I think is, in part, happening with America right now. God is asking us what we want, to an extent. But mostly, He\u2019s just asking us to pick our punishment.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s not fun. Or funny. It\u2019s judgment. It\u2019s discipline. And we feel like it\u2019s yucky. But as my brother often says \u2026\u00a0<\/div>\n
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It is what it is.\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
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Nothing is going to change in the next month. Voting for a third party is an option, but at that point, you\u2019ve not really answered the Lord\u2019s question, and He will make the decision for you. Fact is, next POTUS will either be Clinton or Trump. My heart wishes it would work for those who don\u2019t support either candidate to vote third party (whether Johnson or another candidate \u2013 heck, Mickey Mouse would be better in my opinion), and have that vote actually make a difference. But it\u2019s not going to happen. Until we find a way to lead a half way decent, third party crusade in a fashion that assures voters they aren\u2019t simply rebels who won\u2019t get their way, the winner will remain either a Democrat or Republican.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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So.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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We are stuck.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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We have been given an ultimatum: Trump or Clinton.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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We have been told, \u201cYou are in trouble. But you get to pick your punishment.\u201d\u00a0<\/div>\n
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My advice is to do just that. Bend over, and take the deserved swats. Pray for mercy!! But just do what you know you can\u2019t escape from. In other words, man up. Get your big girl panties on. Or however you want to say it. But don\u2019t stay home.\u00a0Vote<\/b>. And don\u2019t play like a third party will win. They won\u2019t. If you MUST vote third party because of your conscience, then I encourage you to do so. It\u2019s still a possibility for me (though I won\u2019t vote Johnson). But I will do so knowing that I\u2019m not really answering the question God is asking.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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I think this election is largely about God telling us He\u2019s done holding back. He is so incredibly patient and merciful. But there comes a time when He gives us over to ourselves. For a long time, we\u2019ve been telling God to back off. We can do it ourselves. We don\u2019t need you. We want to kill babies. We want to depend on the government for our needs. We want to act out our sexuality in whatever way we please. We want men to marry men and women to marry women. Some have even said they prefer Allah over Jesus. And Trump and Clinton are His way of saying \u201cAs you wish.\u201d\u00a0<\/div>\n
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One more story and I will close.<\/div>\n
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When I was about eight, the ceiling light cover in my bedroom got broken. It was one of those glass covers everyone had in the 70\u2019s. When I walked into my room from playing outside, glass was all over my bed. Holy smokes, Mom was mad. She asked me and my brothers several times who did it. We all three denied having anything to do with the situation.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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\u201cBroken glass does not just happen on it\u2019s own! Someone threw a baseball at it or something. Someone is lying! Who is it?\u201d\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Again and again, we denied it. To this day, I don\u2019t know if either brother did it. All I know is that I didn\u2019t do it.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Well, Mom decided to deal with it like a school teacher often does when one student misbehaves, but she\u2019s unsure which one. She punished\u00a0all<\/i>\u00a0of us until someone \u2018fessed up.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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I loathe that type of punishment, because every time I\u2019ve been subject to it (not that often), I\u2019ve been innocent. Perhaps that is how some Christians are feeling during this election \u2013 that judgment and punishment are coming, and they haven\u2019t done wrong.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Well, first<\/b> I\u2019d like to say I understand. I have fought against immorality, I\u2019ve prayed for repentance, I\u2019ve done some repenting of my own, I\u2019ve always voted pro-life, pro-aged, pro-handicapped. I\u2019m a church goer. I read and study my Bible. I\u2019ve tried to love God and raise my kids to love God. And on and on I could go. You probably could, too, and it just feels so stinking unfair that you will be punished for living in a country full of rebels. You\u2019ve spent most of your life as a God-fearing citizen. You want God back in our schools, our churches (yes, He\u2019s been kicked out of there at times), our courts, and most importantly, our hearts. To all of that, I\u2019d say, keep on keepin\u2019 on. We will reap if we faint not.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Second<\/b>, I\u2019d like to say that I think that though we\u2019re under the impression that we\u2019ve tried our best, we all need to search our own hearts. The easiest thing to do when punishment is inevitable is to point the finger. Since Adam and Eve, we have been blame shifters. That is the bent of human hearts. And so \u2013 search the person you see in the mirror. Figure ought what you<\/i> need to repent of, keep praying for nation wide repentance, and leave the rest in God\u2019s hands, knowing that He remains on the throne. He still loves you. He will never leave or forsake you. He loves you with an everlasting love. He\u2019s not going to deliver you from punishment this time, but He knows which punishment you should pick. He knows what He wants you to learn from this election. And He knows what you need to repent of. There\u2019s always something. And pointing bony (or fat!) fingers doesn\u2019t do anyone any good. The only thing anyone can ever do is work on themselves, and pray that others will do the same.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Prayer is for the powerless<\/i>, and in case you\u2019re fallen asleep reading this, \u201cthe powerless\u201d would be you and I in this historical moment.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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If My people will who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land<\/i>. 2 Chron. 7:14\u00a0<\/div>\n
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God hasn\u2019t promised America those things, specifically, but it shows us His heart. It shows us He delights in forgiving and hearing and healing, if we will but humble ourselves, pray, and repent.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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So that\u2019s my encouragement to you today. This is a rather elementary post, but sometimes I think we get too head-y in our assessment of political issues. God has cleared the muddy waters for me today, and I hope through me, He has done the same for you.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Much love to you all as you battle your way through voting decisions, repentance, prayer, and pride.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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This election, like several recent past elections, has been referred to as an election of choice \u2013 the choice between the lesser of two evils.\u00a0 To a degree, I agree.\u00a0 I don\u2019t prefer either candidate. In fact, I\u2019ve not preferred any presidential candidate for decades. But here I am again. Four weeks left until the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2920,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPick Your Punishment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This election, like several recent past elections, has been referred to as an election of choice - the choice between the lesser of two evils. To a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/felixculpa\/2016\/10\/pick-your-punishment.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pick Your Punishment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This election, like several recent past elections, has been referred to as an election of choice - 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