It's surprising where life - and Jesus - will take you.
My husband Steve and I are celebrating 28 years of marriage this week. When we got married, our interest in God - and politics - was virtually nil. We "fell" into church when we attended with some friends who talked us into going. No one was more surprised than we were when we discovered Jesus. We dove head-first into white American evangelicalism and church life.
By our 5th anniversary, we were whole-hearted Republicans, having been taught in church that Republicans were the only party who represented God. On our 10th anniversary, we voted for John McCain. On our 14th anniversary, we voted for Mitt Romney.
But sometime around our 20th anniversary, the Republican party no longer represented Godly values to us. They had ditched God in favor of a politician who boasted about himself incessantly, bragged about sexual assault, criticized war heroes like my dad, and mocked people with disabilities. Although still conservative, we said goodbye to the Republican party, and also to the segment of the evangelical church that promoted Trumpism. I wrote a book about it.
Last night we celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary. We had plans to go to dinner, so I took a shower, washed my hair and put on a dress. But then I realized it was the last night of the Democratic National Convention. The first three nights of the DNC were overflowing with positivity and hope and freedom and respect. The joy in the room was real and tangible. It felt like a gigantic love-fest. Gus had made us cry, and our hearts explode. We wanted to watch again. Plus, I really wanted to hear Adam Kinzinger so. . . I changed back into my sweats and we ordered a pizza.
In almost three decades we've gone from political apathy, to strict conservativism, to still fairly conservative but able to recognize that "where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2 Cor.3:17) The cloudy pillar has moved on, and we moved with it. We've left behind the darkness, the bitterness, the bullying, the calls for violence, the cynicism, the fear of others, and the conspiracy theories. We've put the party contaminated by Trumpism behind us, and, well, we may not fit perfectly with the DNC, but we can breathe easier. We like it here.
You just never know where life - or Jesus - will take you.
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