I could sure use an advocate. The trouble is that the people who were elected to represent me are the ones who are creating my problem. You see, I love my neighborhood. It is a beautiful mixture of trees, water, homes, and natural habitat for many of God’s other creatures, such as eagles, alligators, owls, and sand hill cranes. Our county commissioners have a different vision. They get excited by townhomes and industrial sites which provide more tax dollars than birds and gators. They have no plans to build roads—those things cost money. They have been pursuing their plan so zealously that now we have traffic gridlock. I am no longer able to venture from my home except between the hours of 10:00am and 1:00pm and I can no longer invite friends to dinner because traffic would prevent them from arriving before dessert. Now the commissioners want to sell park land next to my neighborhood to a foreign corporation that wants to build a Hydrogen plant. It will include parking for 1200 employees and add trucks full of dangerous chemicals to our already packed roads. We have tried to talk with the commissioners, and they do provide meetings where we can air our grievances—meetings they rarely attend, and if they do, they don’t listen.
So, if the people who were appointed to represent you are instead representing your adversaries, then where do you turn? I think of Job, whose complaint was not with county commissioners, but with God himself. He longed to make his case before God, but God seemed unapproachable. Job wrote these words:
“If only I knew where to find him;
Job 23:3-5
if only I could go to his dwelling!
I would state my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would find out what he would answer me,
and consider what he would say to me.”
I actually sent an email to my commissioner inviting him to go on a drive with me so that I can show him how bad the traffic is. Yes, I know that he isn’t going to accept my invitation and that even if he did, it would do no good. I offered him a cup of coffee; the other side is putting up $492 million.
Who will be my advocate?
To answer this, I will turn to one of my favorite Bible chapters, Romans 8. Here we are told about a very special advocate:
“The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:26-28
The Spirit is my advocate and God is my protector. Here is what else Romans 8 tells us:
“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one.”
Romans 8:31-34
I don’t hold out much hope for elected officials, the world of political power is filled with corruption. However, I know that they ultimately have no power to ruin my life, nor do they have power to destroy God’s world. My advocate is helping me to pray about this, in fact, he is taking over the prayer duties whenever my prayers come from a place of passion but little knowledge. Also, if God gave up his Son for me, do I really think he’d allow county commissioners to mess with me.
I have been learning that governments are useful, and God-given, but they cannot save. Only God can do that. When King David was in trouble, he knew two approaches—one spiritual, the other political. He chose the spiritual solution and wrote:
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
Psalm 20:7
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
Where does your help come from?