My recent article about the upcoming election surprised some friends who asked why I write about faith and politics. Why wade into the topics others prefer to avoid? I’d like to offer a peek inside my head.
Why I write about faith and politics
My #election2020 editorial shares the first time I chose to hold my tongue rather than step into an impossible argument and attempt to persuade someone to shift his perspective and see the situation differently.
Twelve years ago, in that car maintenance waiting room I decided that man’s opinion of our military was more important than my opinion on thoughts about where women did or did not belong (as he had suggested).
Though I didn’t realize it at the time, that choice helped frame my writing and speaking ever since. It’s one of the filters I apply to everything I publish: What’s more important? My opinions or my relationship with you?
As a leader, mentor, sister, daughter, wife, and friend, I want you to trust me more than I want you to agree with me. (And if you don’t already, I’d like to hope you’ll choose to believe God and trust Him more than I want you to agree with me.)
I want you to trust me more than I want you to agree with me.
I believe with all my heart we are longing for objective truth and trustworthy people in a noisy world filled with subjective opinions.
You don’t need – and probably don’t want – more opinions in your newsfeed. (If you’re like me, you’re annoyed that a fun way to stay connected to family and friends now feels like an inbox bursting with spam and chain letters.)
Friends we need truth, but to find it and keep it in this digital age we will need more humility and more trust. We need discernment. And we need relationships that are alive and real – safe spaces where we can have hard conversations and ask honest questions without fear of judgment or reproach.
We need truth but to find it and keep it, we all need more humility, trust, and discernment.
So that’s why I write about faith and politics. And why I write about faith and motherhood, life in the military, as a leader, and as a former government official.
I’m humbly stepping into writing in the spaces that make us uncomfortable. I might say all the things you’re thinking but never say. But I might also say the exact thing you don’t want to hear. Perhaps we’ll have the conversation God knows we both need most.
Why I write about faith and politics: to have the conversation God knows we both need.
Before you check out, may I gently encourage you to stick around? Trust that my relationship with you matters more to me than whether you “like” this post, leave a comment, or share. I pray you’ll see more of the God I trust with my life and less of the ragamuffin He chose to save.