Election Day

I, like so many other Americans this past Tuesday, November 4th, got the chance to exercise my right and responsibility to vote.  What I didn't expect from my ballot casting experience this year was the opportunity to be blessed with one of the most meaningful moments of all of my previous years of voting.

My wife and I live on the FAR west side of Wichita... :-)   Actually, we live way out "in the sticks."  And, though where we live results in a 37 mile drive (74 miles round-trip) every day to work, I love the time on the road that it provides me.  Whenever anyone asks me about the distance of my commute, I always tell them "A Church alive, is worth the drive!"  And, really, for me, my commute in, and then back home again, is just some good, God given, additional time to prayerfully prepare for the upcoming challenges of my day, as well as some much needed time to sort things out and prepare to more fully engage with my family when I return home.

Personally speaking, as many of you might have guessed, my favorite means of commuting to and from Park City is on my bike (no, it's not a 10 Speed Schwinn), and my favorite season to do so is Fall.  There is just something about taking in all of the colors, scents and scenes of this time of year from the saddle of a motorcycle, on a crisp autumn day, that is truly indescribable.

This past election Tuesday was one of those picturesque November days that I chose to commute in to work on my bike, but before I headed in to town, I needed to stop off at my assigned polling place at the Castleton Township Hall, in Castleton, Ks.  The Castleton Township Hall is actually an old red-brick, Western looking structure that I believe was at one time the town "General Store" and is smack dab in the middle of a tiny Kansas community that, in many ways, is barely still on the map.  I love voting in Castleton, for me, it is always a reminder that small communities not only matter, but are actually some of the most significant places in the world, no matter what pollsters, politicians, pundits, or folks not from here, may say.

On my way to the polls this past Tuesday, as I was trying to get in, and then get out, as quickly as possible, I rolled into town and had to pull up to a pretty abrupt complete stop.  As I did, I found myself having to wait (one of my favorite things)... not on road construction, an accident, a traffic jam, or even at an official intersection, but on, of all things, a real, old-fashioned, cattle drive.  Sitting there for a few unscheduled minutes, I watched and listened as the cowboys whistled, shouted and wrangled their red-angus herd across the road, and then on across railroad tracks in front of me, eventually driving them on into the corral just to the North of where I was stopped.  In the background, at the very same moment, I also watched as a couple of farm trucks loaded down with freshly harvested Milo pulled up to the COOP grain elevator and then heard one of the drivers honk his horn trying to get the attention of the scale attendant.  As I looked up, in the middle of all of that activity, as that scene etched itself into my heart, I saw gently flapping in the cool November breeze, an American flag... and in that instant, I was reminded of what Election Day was really all about. 

In that moment, a feeling of purpose and significance came over me like nothing I have ever really experienced on any prior election day.  I realized, in the hustle of my trying to get my voting done and then get myself on down the road to work, that I, as an American, as a Kansan, and as a Christian, as I had been paused for a few moments of unscheduled waiting, was actually a part of something far greater than my plans for the day.  I understood in those moments of waiting that my vote mattered, that it actually mattered for the America that I loved, for the State that I knew as home, and that it was going to make all of the difference in the world for places just like this, places on the edge of nowhere, so very far from the things the world considers significant or noteworthy.

So, whether or not your candidate or candidates won this past Tuesday, if you voted, I just want to take a moment and say thank you.  Thank you for taking the time to be counted, to matter, to make a difference, to be an American.  May God bless you, for your time and effort given in voting, may God Bless Kansas through your vote, and may God Bless America, and all of the things that make this country the greatest nation on the face of the earth, as we continue to put our hands to the work of being Americans.

Keep On Keepin' On In Jesus...

- Pastor Rob Schmutz