Neither, He was a servant. So, where does that leave me when as an American seeker of Jesus I'm given only 2 choices? Frankly I'm confused about some things right now and I am getting weary of wading through the political muck that comes with being a human being in the information age.  

Be warned! If you are under the age of 23 you may want to stop reading right here. Otherwise you run the risk of falling asleep...

For as long as I can remember I have considered myself a conservative- I was a Republican (even before Jesus became mine) for many reasons but mainly because they seem to follow the philosophy of "helping people help themselves." Rather then giving handouts you teach people how to become self-sustaining. Doesn't that make sense? Help them earn their way so they don't become dependant on the system. But I find myself questioning that approach lately.

 I think many people are simply broken and the damage is too deep to be fixed with a new job skill. They are slaves to the thought patterns that have repressed them and most likely their families for generations. It's like giving a branch that has been cut from a tree some water and soil and saying, "here ya go- now nourish yourself." Even though it has the ingredients needed to survive that branch is going to quickly wither and die.

As I see things "Lefties" (liberals) tend to be great at helping the poor and serving the needy. I mean it seems that they do it in a way that is personal and caring. Their political track record however shows that they tend to believe the needy are incapable of taking care of themselves. Their method or approach to the needy (hand-outs) seems to feed itself. The needy get needier and reproduce needy children, who reproduce needy children, who reprod... You get the idea. It is very similar to helping a butterfly out of it's cocoon. By helping it you render it helpless- leaving it weak and unable to fly.

I know that the obvious answer is Jesus, but how do you apply healing to a wound that in the eye of the wounded does not exist? In other words many among the needy are not interested in changing or are not even aware that anything is wrong... They often take on the mantle of the victimized believing that they deserve help or are even entitled to it.

Jesus said "You will always have the poor among you..." (Matt. 26:11) so no matter what we do or how hard we try there will always be needy people. Always! That makes me wonder if maybe giving handouts isn't really such a bad idea. As my wife can attest- the quickest way to someone’s heart is through his or her stomach. As far as I can tell their heart is where the real issue lays not their lack of skills.

Let me help you brother because I know you can't help yourself and honestly... I don't expect you to.

Why are you helping me?

Because I love you.

Why do you love me?

Because Jesus loves me and He has helped me countless times when I couldn't help myself.

I know that sounds a bit cheeky, but maybe with prayer, contact (touch), relationship, and unconditional love (zero expectation) over time the grace of Jesus would become real and would manifest itself through us into the heart of the broken. How can a helpless being then stand to resist the transformation that takes place when Jesus introduces Himself in that terrifying, wonderful way that he does?

Ouch! I really got sidetracked...

Back to my confusion-  As much I like P. Bush and believe him to be a lover of Jesus I am about at the point where I can no longer align myself to him. That really hurts me because there was a time when I couldn't stand to even hear criticism of him or his policies. But it just seems to me that from the world perspective being a "Christian" no longer means you follow Jesus, but rather you are someone with a rigid, political agenda. Right or wrong P. Bush's politics are now associated with the Church and all those people that hate Bush hate the Church or at the very least mistrust it. That leaves me with little or no credibility with the very people Jesus was closest to. 

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I think what is happening to me is a shift of loyalties. The blinders are coming off and I'm seeing that even though I share many of the same values as the Republican party I no longer agree with how they try to spread them. Values cannot advance like a military action (with force). Force most often creates rebellion. Only love, prayer, and patience will create real change- will transform hearts, will see the Kingdom grow.

Brace yourselves... I'm about to wax on.

As I watched the "State of the Union" speech the other night it struck me that the center isle of that "hallowed" chamber (the center line of bipartisanship) could perhaps represent the plumb line of truth. A very thin strip of safety between two embittered camps of ideology.

Disclaimer:

I realize that some the above observations are very generalized, but they do represent how I perceive things at the moment. Feel free to throw your thoughts into the mix as I try and work some of this out.