Tolerating Politics (and Most Everything)
Many family and friends ask me regularly how I tolerate working in politics, which is odd given that it is a question I rarely ask myself. Often my frustrations in politics are not a result of what happens in the Kansas Legislature. Instead, my frustration grows from a lack of meaningful engagement by my fellow Kansans. This was most evident earlier in the week when 4,149 Shawnee voters showed up out of 40,608 registered voters to cast ballots for our next mayor. Despite much analysis, I am entirely baffled how engagement can be so paltry.
This does, however, tie back to the question on politics. I care deeply about politics and good governance. Further, I greatly enjoy the conversations about how to establish policies that promote good governance. But my engagement in politics and my perspective is still that of a sojourner, one who has a hope in what s to come.
Paul David Tripp wrote this week about an excerpt from “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis (www.paultripp.com/articles/posts/made-for-another-world). In it, Lewis offers that “I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country…” This is a principle that always tempers my frustration and provides a healthier perspective for everything I face.
When I was younger, my church would sing Helen Lemmel’s “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” The concluding line reads, “And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” I actively disliked this hymn. Though it’s quite beautiful, I remember a welling in the pit of my stomach at the thought of missing out on all the pleasures life offers. Why would anyone want earthly pleasures to lose their luster? As I have experienced a bevy of what this planet has to offer, I increasingly understand the truth behind Lewis’s “Mere Christianity,” Lemmel’s hymn, and Solomon’s Ecclesiastes (see chapters 1-2, 12). Without a hope in what is to come—a kingdom and life greater than this—there is little joy in what we currently have. Even the best is only a “copy, or echo, or mirage” of what we can expect in a life through Christ.
That said, I have no qualms or hesitancies about continuing to push for making my temporary residence the best that it can be. Politics and policy formation often earns its sullied reputation for distastefulness. This does not, however, eliminate our responsibility for good stewardship and engagement in the political process. So I continue contributing as best I can in the occasionally unsavory political arena. But I live knowing there is a cap on what this world’s best can offer, and it makes those frustrations much smaller when in perspective of the kingdom I truly serve.
“And so in my quest
for more
I am faced with
the incontrovertible
daily evidence
that this simply is not all
that there is
and the sure truth
that I was
hardwired
for another world.”
– Paul David Tripp
