As I write this, I find myself in a bit of a tough spot. I occasionally write book reviews for a Christian publisher, and right now I am reading a very political book and wondering how I will be able to review it with out coming out sounding very partisan. At about the same time some friends of mine, people I value very highly have posted some political posts on social media that just make me want to dive into the fray and challenge their point of view. Yes, the truth is I can be very opinionated and very political, and I hold these views because I believe them to be right. That being said, I am working very hard to practice restraint. Before I go any further, I want to confess that there have been very many times when I have failed at that miserably, and anyone who has followed me on social media will know it. 

So why do I need to restrain myself and by extension, why should you? Because as creatives, we need to realize we are in the “business” of communication. We are here to put forth messages into the world, and as Christians who are creatives, we need to make sure we are putting forth the right messages. Christians are in this world, first and foremost, to represent Christ. Now if you are a Christian and you feel you are called to politics, then God bless you, do it, but be careful, because you are also here to represent Christ and that means Christ is more important than your party and if your party fails to follow Christ, you need to part ways with your party. 

You see, as Christians, our message matters. So what is your message? It’s pretty simple, you don’t have one of your own, and if you do, it’s irrelevant compared to the message of Christ. No politician has ever saved a soul, only Jesus can do that. No political party has ever saved a soul, only Jesus can do that. No political party has ever completely towed the Jesus line on every issue. For that matter, neither has any church. The reason for that is simple. Churches and parties are made up of people and sometimes people sin, and that includes this author. The best politics and elections will ever give you is the opportunity to pick the lesser of two evils and the problem with that is the lesser of two evil is still evil. Perfection is found in Christ alone. There was the time when we had the opportunity to be ruled by a perfect King who always loves us, was always perfectly honest, totally trustworthy, always knew the right thing to do and always had the best interests of everyone at heart. From an earthly point of view, we killed Him. That’s the condition of our society because it is the condition of our unredeemed hearts. We need Jesus, all day, every day, all the time.

So when we are putting forth a message, maybe the best question to ask is whose message are we putting forth, the perfect message of our perfect Lord, or our own? What does our work say? What are we putting forth? What are we telling the world? You see, you and I are flawed and a lot of times when we decide to jump into the fray with our own thoughts and our own opinions, we are just adding to the noise and we don’t end up representing Christ very well. I don’t think, as Christians, we are here to fix the world. I think we are here to point people to the only One who can fix the world. People say to follow your heart, but the Bible tells us the human heart is deceptive in all things. What we need is a change of heart, and that is something only Jesus can do. What’s your message? Now as a follow up question, will that message draw people to the Lord? Because if not, maybe it’s time to change your message.