With the election just days away, I’ve been checking my heart a lot lately. Politics is a blind spot for me. If I’m not careful, I can turn it into an idol. Not because I’m partisan – I’m not a Republican or a Democrat – but because I’m competitive and I like to argue.
I know I’m not alone here. Politics has become such a money-maker for America’s news media that it’s almost impossible to avoid being consumed by the hype. It’s during times like these that it’s important to remember Jesus’ words – “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” When our hearts are polluted by stress, bitterness, or anxiety about the future, we give our spiritual enemy an opportunity to divert our eyes away from God. And that’s usually how we get ourselves in trouble.
In 1960, a young man named Bernard was living the American dream. He was from a close-knit, middle-class family. He married his high school sweetheart. He was a hard-worker. After working for a year as a lifeguard at a local pool and saving every dime he could, he invested all he had – $5,000 – in his new business, a financial planning office. He grew his business by giving honest advice and personal attention to every client, and soon enough he had a strong, growing company on his hands.
For forty years he was well-respected in the financial industry and served on the boards of several charities. He had a reputation for being a family man; he hired his two sons to work with him at the family business. All his dreams were coming true.
But somewhere along the way, something had gone horribly wrong. In December 2008, this self-made, hard-working family man confessed to his sons that a branch of his company was an elaborate Ponzi scheme, and the boys had no choice but to turn their father in to the authorities.
The next day, Bernie Madoff told investigators he had stolen “around $50,000,000,000” from his clients. Their investigation revealed the actual figure was $65 Billion. Madoff was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to 150 years in prison. The list of his victims includes household names like Steven Spielberg, Kevin Bacon, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Sandy Koufax. He also stole $9M from schoolteachers in Korea and $15M from a foundation supporting Holocaust survivors and their families. Several charities were forced to close their doors in 2009 because Madoff took all they had.
Maybe the most tragic victims were Madoff’s own sons. One of them hanged himself on the two-year anniversary of his dad’s arrest. The other one died after a cancer relapse, which he blamed on the stress and shame that his father’s crimes had caused him.
In the wake of Madoff’s conviction, everyone wanted to know how this could have happened. Was this the plan all along? Was there ever a board meeting in which an evil scheme was devised and agreed upon? Where did it all begin?
It began just like every tragic tailspin of sin begins. One day, business was slow; Bernie wasn’t meeting his quotas. His arch rival across town was crushing him. Bernie hadn’t taken a day off in months. His wife was mad at him. When he looked in the mirror, he saw a fat, old loser. So that day, at just the right moment, Bernie’s most important client called, wanting information about her investments. Bernie couldn’t bring himself to tell her the truth; he was afraid he’d lose her business. So instead, he told her a little white lie, just to avoid the pain. The spreadsheet said her fund was down 3%, but Bernie told her it was up 3%.
That made her happy. The feeling Bernie got from making her happy was like that first cup of coffee in the morning, and he wanted more. So the first little lie led to a second and a third, and with every little lie, lying got easier and the stakes got higher, until one day that young man who worked his tail off to save $5,000 to start a business looked in the mirror and saw the world’s most notorious thief, a destroyer of lives. And it all began with one little lie.
The same is true for every sinner and every toxic pattern of sin. No one ever takes their first drink and thinks, “I hope I become a raging alcoholic one day.” No one ever gets a little too flirty with a coworker thinking, “I can see this becoming an affair that will break my wife’s heart, change my kids’ lives forever, and bring me to financial ruin.” No one ever takes a few days off of praying and reading the Bible or a few weeks off of church thinking, “I’m looking forward to seeing how Satan will use this opportunity I’m giving him.”
1 Peter 5:8 says the Enemy “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour,” and Ephesians 4:27 says, “Give no opportunity to the Devil.” He will use anything against you. And all he needs is one opportunity, one moment of weakness, one open door, and He’s in.
We tend to think evil works overtly. We like to think evil people were evil all along. We prefer to neatly categorize them and think of them like sinister villains in the movies, because that helps us forget that we’re all sinners and criminals. We’re all Bernie Madoff.
We Christians talk a lot about how God has a plan for your life, and I believe that to be true. But we need to understand that Satan also has a plan for your life. God’s purpose is to reshape you into His image; the Enemy’s plan is to warp and contort you until one day you look in the mirror and you no longer recognize yourself.
NT Wright describes this process:
“When human beings worship that which is not God, they progressively cease to reflect the image of God. One of the primary laws of human life is that you become like what you worship. Those who worship money increasingly define themselves in terms of it and increasingly treat other people as creditors, debtors, partners, or customers rather than as human beings. Those who worship sex define themselves in terms of it (their preferences, their practices, their past histories) and increasingly treat other people as actual or potential sex objects. Those who worship power (or politics!) define themselves in terms of it and treat other people as either collaborators, competitors, or pawns…My suggestion is that it is possible for human beings so to continue down this road, so to refuse all whisperings of good news, all glimmers of the true light, all promptings to turn and go the other way, all signposts to the love of God, that after death they become at last, by their own effective choice, beings that once were human but now are not, creatures that have ceased to bear the divine image at all.”
This is what’s at stake. This election season, I believe our very souls are on the line. Our future is up for grabs. Not because of who might win or lose, but because we’re at risk of taking our eyes off of God. Whoever you vote for, and whoever wins, Jesus is still our King. And the name of Jesus is better than any name you’ll see on a ballot next Tuesday. So take heart, don’t give in to anger, fear, or hate, and remember Jesus’ promise: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
