I Can’t Vote But I’m Okay

Election day in Canada is always a hard day for me. I’m American, married to a Canadian, and since I’m not a citizen, I can’t vote here. And because I feel strongly about participation and having a say in the outcome of most situations, I’m tempted to give into feeling powerless and helpless when the poll numbers start rolling in.

Show Up and Be Faithful

About seven years ago, my husband and I joined a few other friends and stepped into the work of starting a pregnancy care centre in our city. Alex and I had been involved with YoungLife in our area and I’d attended board meetings for our local pro-life education organization. We had small children, though, so I’d never been heavily involved in anything other than fundraising.

You may hear from time to time that abortion is legal in Canada, but it’s more accurate to say that there are simply no abortion restrictions. My husband and I are politically pro-life and he works to elect pro-life politicians. But we have primarily taken a “hands and feet” approach to getting work done to protect the unborn. The need in our city was obvious, and so the next right thing for us to do was work together with friends to form a center to care for the unborn and their mothers in our city to the best of our collective abilities.

The Pregnancy Care Centre work became deeply personal to my husband and me, as we began to see a deep connection between our efforts to create a center and our pro-life home raising the children God has given us. And by God’s grace, we get to enjoy the life in our home and celebrate countless women served and unborn lives saved through the continued work of the PCC.

The road to opening the center doors was not without difficulty or loss. However, through the process, my husband and I very quickly became familiar with a phrase that has borne repeating through difficulty and ease, through unclear life situations and obvious callings:

Show up and be faithful.

The God Who Sees

During a particularly painful time for us in the process of opening the PCC doors, I faced a genuine crisis of my faith: would I take matters into my own hands and seek my idea of a good outcome? Or would I choose to believe that I serve the God who sees and cling to the truth that He will be faithful to do what is right?

Ultimately, I chose to trust the Lord, though not without much stumbling along the way. I can say on this side of it, that I’m genuinely thankful my all-seeing God gave me this chance to practice trusting Him. He laid groundwork for me to survive several other trials to come later and He kept me aware (painfully at times) that as John Piper has said, “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.”

We will always be tempted to believe that small acts of faithfulness don’t make enough impact. Some of us will respond to the temptation by going off in search of more power, bigger spotlights, or louder megaphones. Some of us shrink back in despair, thinking what we do doesn’t matter anyway so why bother trying?

As I have clung to the truth that God is so much bigger and more aware than I am, He has held me back from losing heart about what lies ahead. He has shown Himself faithful in the work He’s put in front of me in my home, with my children, and in my community. And perhaps more surprisingly, the fact that God is actively doing more than I can ever imagine has propelled me to attempt things that seem unattainable or impossible at the outset.

Faithful From Home

For me, the role I played changed significantly when major steps were completed to organize the PCC in our area, and my husband was elected to the working board. I was no longer a member of the steering team with small bits to contribute here and there.

Now that my husband needed to go engage in the difficult work of actually creating the center, I became the active force in our home making it possible for him to leave for meetings comfortably and peacefully.

When it comes to forming a viable pro-life pregnancy resource center, there are no passive roles. Every wife sending her husband out the door after supper with encouragement and prayer on her lips is giving him peace in his heart about their home. And every wife’s participation in the work of peace on the home-front is an invaluable dimension to creating a truly pro-life organization.

The God Who Sees

So now here I am, hours before an election that seems impossibly stacked against Christians, especially against our work to save the unborn. Some Christians I know are voting for a man who I believe is a two-faced liar, only marginally supporting Christian values to gain votes. Other followers of Christ are voting for parties that are as far removed from Christian beliefs as I can imagine.

I’m tempted to fear that they are flippantly giving away everything we have worked to build and secure for the pro-life cause. And if we had built the pro-life work on sand, I might have genuine cause to fear everything crumbling around us.

But the God who built this center and brought us through the building process is a God who sees. He works justice for the oppressed. He is not hampered by weak or narcissistic politicians, nor are His plans thwarted by vote counts.

We serve the God who does not disregard our work or our love for the saints and strengthens us to pursue small acts of unseen faithfulness. He is the God of armies who goes ahead of us and defeats our enemies as we attempt the impossible in His name.

“For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Hebrews 6:10-12 ESV

Today and Tomorrow

I may not be able vote or “have a say” at the polls today, (though my faithful husband represented our family well for me). But I am confident that the Lord will be good to His people. Because I’m in Christ, I’m not powerless or helpless.

I’m standing in Christ’s strength asking God to give us leaders who will not destroy unborn children, the weak, and the helpless inside our borders and beyond. The Lord is merciful, He sees all, He rules, and He does not neglect the prayers of His people.

I can’t vote but I’m okay. I don’t worry that God will abandon me or that I haven’t done my part. Our hope today, tomorrow, and every day is in our God. As my husband prayed this morning, “We will rejoice in you, Lord, whatever the outcome.”

I will exult in His name, knowing that the poll results will ultimately be for His glory and the good of His people. I will work to make my home the most pro-life organization I can.

And tomorrow and every day after, by God’s grace, we will show up and be faithful.

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