What do you think about politics? Britain and the United States have recently been through elections, and some votes are still being counted in the U.S., as I write this.

Apparently Canada is getting closer to a divisive election.

So, is there a lesson for us?

Before, during, and after any recent election, did you find new friends and allies, and on the other side or did you make new enemies? Are there people you don’t speak to now?

One estimate is that about half of the active Christians, let’s call them “Evangelicals”, did not vote in the recent U,S. election. Apparently, many strong Christians don’t like divisive politics, with political arguments, and many just stay home on election day. I can’t prove that, but it is the opinion of some experts.

If you want to know more:

Imagine that this is true, millions of Christians did not vote, and don’t like politics. Now imagine that those election avoiders all decided to vote. They could change the outcome of any election. If the numbers are correct, we can do the math, and the results are impressive.

People who value political power are impressed by those numbers.

So, should we all become political activists? If a person is a believer, some people believe there is only one correct political path. Christians should belong to the “Christian Right.” That means, if you become Christian, you will take on a political position. It seems to be a package deal.

Here are three ways to be an activist; A, B, and C:

A) Here is something else to imagine.

The first Christians lived under Roman dictators who abused and persecuted them. That makes this advice seem strange:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. (Romans 13: 1)

Really? Respect those terrible people? Apparently yes.

Note; one request from the governing authorities, in our time, is that we vote. Those elections need our participation.

B) Also, we have some important democracy instructions, in the Bible:

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:31-32)

Before, during and after; those are good instructions, especially for after an election. In my family, I don’t like to miss Thanksgiving and Christmas get-togethers, but I know how explosive political talk can be.

One time I forced a political conversation to stop, and told everyone we were not going to talk about that. I’m not usually forceful, like that, but our family evening was about to become an angry fight.

Note, we were told to forgive one another in the book of Ephesians, as quoted. We only have to forgive if something and someone is wrong. Angry conversations are not a new thing and divisions were so serious among the first Christians that they were told to forgive each other.

That’s a picture of anger and division.

C) We also need to understand real power.

Politics and elections are important to some people because they seem to be a route to power. Most of us don’t know that the world is changing radically, in our time and the change is spiritual, not political.

There is another election that we need to vote in.

We were told: And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18 to 20)

Can you believe that there is a new Christian church, and it has already grown to about three hundred thousand believers? From a new church start-up to the population of a mid-sized city. And this all happened in a few years.

Some invisible power is working in our world, and it is much greater than any political decision. We might be more civil if we believed that there is a power that is much greater than politics and elections.

Here is a picture of real power:

We can’t ignore those numbers, or we shouldn’t. In other parts of the world, the vote to find God and to follow Jesus has thousands of new members, every day.

The choice to find God, and follow him, is a different election. I hope we all will participate in that election, and find real power in this world.