I watched the Presidential debate Tuesday night between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. I knew it was probably going to be something of a train wreck going in. I didn’t know it was going to go down as one of the most cringe worthy debates in American history. It seemed more like an episode of Jerry Springer than a discussion to help us choose the next leader of the free world.
For those of you who didn’t watch, here’s a sample video of that debate:
A Teachable Moment From The Debate
I found something instructive that I believe we can take away from the debate. When I looked on stage, I didn’t see two men simply brawling on stage as they competed for the highest political office in our land.
I saw a mirror. It was a mirror that simply reflected our condition as Americans.
It had two men that were completely one sided, mean, cantankerous, with everyone talking over each other and nobody listening. It was like something we see play out a thousand times a day on Facebook or Twitter. What we saw was simply the fruit of the seed we’ve long been sowing in America in discussions about the left vs the right, capitalist vs socialist, white vs black, and male vs female.
This Is What God’s Everyday Judgments Look Like
When we think about the judgment of God, we think about stories like Noah and the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Ten Plagues on Egypt, and the end of the world. What we don’t think about is the type of judgment in which God simply gives us over to the everyday things we want besides Him. It’s the judgment in which God simply lets us have the fill of our way, to suffer the consequences of our actions, and to harvest the fruit of the seed which we have long sown.
The Bible says we will “reap what we sow.” And I believe that what we saw with the Trump and Biden debate was simply the fruit of the seed we’ve long been sowing. It is our harvest. It is our judgment. And just as farmers put apple seeds into the ground and get apple trees that produce apples, so too we have been sowing the seeds of anger and strife, and are seeing the fruit thereof in our political leaders.
Action matters. Choices ultimately have consequences. Eat a lot of unhealthy food and never exercise, and you’ll eventually get fat and unhealthy. If you love to shop and spend money and never make a budget, you’ll eventually end up deeply in debt and find yourself in financial peril. Lie, and soon you’ll have to tell another lie to defend the original lie, and before you know it, you’ve told a thousand lies.
That is what God’s judgment ultimately looks like. It’s less fire and brimstone, and more of God just letting us have our own way.
As the old saying goes: “Sin takes you further than you ever wanted to go, keeps you longer than you ever wanted to stay, and makes you pay a price you cannot pay.”
What We Need To Do
Therefore, if God is going to let us have the fill of our own ways, instead of pursuing selfish ambition, power, wealth, prestige, and all the lusts of our hearts, let us then choose to sow the seeds of love, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, mercy, and self-control.
We need to plant better seeds that produce good fruit. Otherwise we risk sowing bad seed that produces bad fruit, and in the end, seeing that tree cast into the fire.
Scriptures Discussed In Today’s Podcast
- Galatians 6:7-9 – “God is not mocked, what a man sows, this he will also reap.”
- Matthew 7:15-18 “Good trees produce good fruit…”
- Romans 1:18-32: “God gave them over…”
