While tuned into The Daily Show a few days ago, I briefly caught part of an interview with Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas. Huckabee was hocking his book, From Hope to Higher Ground. I hadn’t heard of it, but he said a few things that I took note of, particularly (and I am paraphrasing): The problem with American politics today is that everything has turned into horizontal politics. Everybody is either on the right or left or somewhere in between. But what people are really interested in is deeper, and it’s more vertical. They want to know if someone is going to help pull them up to a better life.
Wow. That encapsulates so much of why I can’t stomach much of the rhetoric on news stations and talking head shows and other types of reporting. Somehow, things have digressed to a point where events are relegated to liberal or conservative. What I really want to know is how is this going to affect life? Is life going to be better or worse because of our foreign policy? Is life going to change because we have a Democratic congress? How are things going to change life?
If I take these thoughts, and run them through the kaleidescope of church life, I feel that the same things could be said when people come to church. Sometimes we can tend to camp out on the sides of an issue. Women in Ministry. Predestination. Inerrancy. The list goes on. It’s easy to devote time to arguing the sides of these issues, but that may be missing the point.
When people step into the world of Christ followers, they probably aren’t looking to take sides. I bet they are trying to find out how is their life going to improve. How can they rid themselves of the loneliness and guilt that gnaw at them in the middle of the night. People are for more interested in the vertical than they are the horizontal.
Here’s to looking up, and not side-to-side…
From The Hills of Athens 
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