I’m sure you’ve heard the old adage, “You can’t see the forest through the trees.”

That saying simply implies that we often can’t see what’s right in front of us because we’ve gotten too close to see what’s actually there. In a sense, we’ve lost perspective.

Earlier this year, I wrote in an article about the need to stay focused on our relationship with Christ as we navigated the upcoming year. There was already an enormous amount of noise in our lives, and more was coming because of the election cycle …

And here we are.

By the time this article is published, many of you will already have voted, which is great! For those of you who haven’t, I simply hope to think through the Christian perspective on the upcoming election and the weeks and months to follow.

First, let’s dispel a common notion that Christians’ voices aren’t allowed in the public sector in modern day culture. As a society, we have created and operated with a system of “public” and “private,” dividing organizations accordingly and allowing for different rules to apply depending on which side of that categorization one fell.

However, that simply isn’t biblical.

According to Paul in Colossians 3:11, “… Christ is all and in all.” That seems like such insignificant phrasing and can easily be glossed over in reading that section of scripture, but, as Believers, if Christ is in all, then we are to be, too.

In God’s view, everything is sacred, ranging from the government to our families to our forms of entertainment and to how our children get educated. As Christ’s ambassadors to this world, God’s expectation is for us to be involved in all aspects of the sacred.

Before we go any further, let’s also take a quick glance at the history of Christianity.

Do you know how privileged the American Christian has been? Our country was founded on Christian values and beliefs by the vast majority of Founding Fathers who lived their lives according to what they understood to be true about the Christian faith.

Keep in mind that most of the early settlers left England for religious liberty.

Because of their shared belief system, our country was founded on common values that came from the Bible. That created a “positive culture” for Christianity to thrive in, and it has for hundreds of years.

But would you say that Christianity is thriving in the United States today?

Would you say we are operating in a “positive culture” for Christians?

The tide seems to have turned on that, and we are in the middle of a tossing sea that has yet to determine the fate of the Christian movement in America.

Christianity in America may be nearing what the vast majority of Christians have always experienced around the world — a “negative culture” that doesn’t welcome the voices of Believers.

We have lived incredibly blessed lives as Christians in this country! No other group of Christians before us has been openly able to practice their faith like we have been able to.

But there’s no guarantee that will always be the norm here. It’s up to Christians to be involved in all aspects of life, providing leadership and direction to the various entities, for that to continue.

The teachings from the Bible should absolutely be our guide as we decide how to handle working with the poor, the struggling, and the young and vulnerable.

We can surmise why we have abdicated our sacred honor and duties to others who don’t hold the same belief system, but, at this point, it doesn’t matter.

We need a fresh breath of life to enter our lungs as Christians in the current environment we are living in. Our voice is not yet gone, and every one of us has the opportunity to have a say in the direction we take for the next four years and beyond.

Should we vote? Absolutely. It’s a part of “Christ in all.”

How should we vote? We should vote for the candidates who will govern most closely in alignment with God’s principles from the Bible.

Well, what if there aren’t “godly candidates”?

If you read the Bible, there are many times when God used people who weren’t affiliated with the faith. And, by the way, that occurred at points because Christians then had abdicated their responsibilities, too. So, God used others to accomplish his will.

Find out the candidates’ belief systems and vote accordingly. To not believe that God can’t use a particular person because of who they’ve been is to tread on awfully thin ice. Current biblical policies preside over past personality flaws.

But here’s the rub: The election will be done and over with shortly.

Are we going to then kick back and assume everything is OK, allowing our newly elected officials to determine the path forward by themselves?

Colossians 3:11 didn’t put an end date as to when Christians were to stop being involved. The assumption was that that principle would always be ongoing.

After the dust of the election settles, we need to find ourselves involved in the sacred discourse that surrounds our communities, presenting a clear picture of who God is, what he desires, and loving our neighbors all at the same time.

To choose to sit back and not be involved is to choose to let the raging waves of the sea take the battered ship down without anyone even hearing the voices of those who once occupied the ship.