Campaign management 101

I am reading “The Hole In The Gospel” by Richard Stearns, who is the president of World Vision. His premise is that Christ meant for us to go through the whole world and preach the gospel and to do those things God has anointed us to do in the 61st chapter of Isaiah. This has become my favorite and most significant passage from the Bible over the past few years. This morning, I reflected on how since I realized that this scripture applies to me, I have not been able to approach a task without looking at the process through His anointing and His lens. So I got thinking about how this lens and this passage applies to the new position I find myself in.

I committed to becoming the campaign manager for a friend who is running for county council. My work in that role is just beginning in earnest and it has already become a steep learning curve! One of the things people tell me is that the candidate I am representing is a commodity and I am to help market her to the public. Yet God has placed in me the assurance that nothing I do in this life can have meaning without a Godly purpose. When I was speaking with God this morning, I asked Him to make clear to me where this particular job fits. Being a campaign manager for a local county election seems so insignificant when held up against going to Africa or Haiti and helping to revolutionize poor nations. Yet, because of Christ in me, I cannot look at this as something separate from my Christianity, something insignificant. My relationship with Christ is my identity, my driving force and my calling.

As I began running it through my head, I realized that I am doing this because it breaks my heart to see people in this community lose their livelihoods – their farms, their small businesses and their homes - because of greedy, self-absorbed and unholy government bureaucrats . I know that these things may seem small compared to the horrors that are going on in Africa and other third world nations, but they are important and critical in our daily lives in this community.

When I see decisions being made to further the environmental agenda, to gain power and to line the pockets of the government officials and activists, while at the same time ignoring the people who are trying to eke out an existence from hard work and risk, I want to help. Right now God is not calling me to go to Africa. He is not calling me to run for public office. Nor is He sending me to preach to the nations. However, He is calling me to be effective for His Kingdom wherever I go.

So I will continue to stand for those who feel they do not have a voice, to support those who feel they can listen and make Godly decisions, and to reflect the light of God, no matter what my job or volunteer efforts are. I know that everything has a purpose – actually more than one purpose. For me, this may be another stepping stone on the way to a bigger calling than I can imagine – one that seemingly has nothing to do with politics, or it may be one of the many experiences that He is letting me have that will add skills to the strength and direction He gives me. For the community and for this Nation, I believe His purpose is to bring the lost sheep home, to turn our hearts to God and to heal this nation. The more followers of Christ that are involved in even the smallest political machine, the more He can further His purpose.

I have no desire to reach greatness and esteem in the eyes of the public. I work behind the scenes and like it that way. My desire is to do what He has anointed me to do in Isaiah 61– to preach good news to the poor, to support the brokenhearted, to help the captives pursue freedom and to help them rebuild the ruins and restore the devastated places. My campaign involvement is only one small facet of what I am doing now to do what God has called me to do – only one iron in the fire. I know that this position will be a time consuming and whirlwind task that seems surface and focused elsewhere at times. I also know it is temporary. Yet I pray that as I work on this campaign, I will continue to keep His perspective in mind while supporting those who are called to more public arenas.

Those of you reading this blog post – please keep this nation in prayer. And if you don’t mind, pray for me – that God will give me discernment and strength to stand for what is right and to encourage those I come in contact with to avoid just going with the political flow. For me it is not about commodities, it is not about winning a campaign, it is about accountability, and most of all, it is about glorifying God, the maker of this universe!