“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
Colossians 3:9-10

In case you haven’t noticed, the 2024 presidential elections have just concluded.  I watch the soundbites and get so angry with the spin—from the twisting of facts to the outright lies, all in the effort to get the votes—to stay in power.  And “spin” is a nice way of saying, “lie.”  Kamala Harris lies about being for the Middle Class when her policies have decimated the Middle Class.  Trump doesn’t even try to hide his narcissism.  Each side twists the statistics, the news, and the reports to mold a perception they want you to have.

As I read the news it was like a truck blindsided me. Why does reading all of this political posturing, hearing this and seeing all this political news trigger me?  I felt God telling me to ask the right question, and it wasn’t a question for those politicians.  It was a question to another politician.  One running for votes, running for control.  One who twists to try and gain votes.

Sometimes I spin. And that’s the nice word.  The real word is – I lie.  One area that has become very evident to me is the quick politician lies – to try and shape perception of those important to me.  Something bad just happened?  Wasn’t me!  Got some news that might put me in bad light?  Deflect. Blame others.  Spin.  Lie.  Answer questions in such a way to show you how innocent and noble I am.

And that’s why the trigger of the Political Spin is so important. I know that when something gets under my skin and bothers me, it’s usually due to my own issues.   Why do I lie?  Because I’m the one campaigning for an office.  It might have started out where I was running for the office of respectable husband, best dad, smartest worker.  But somewhere along the way, it became a vicious cycle – the more I spun lies to make myself look better, the worse I looked, and then the harder I tried to spin stuff.  To the point where extremely little things, “Who moved this?” “Not me!” was out of my mouth before I even could think about it.  Of course it was me.  But to own it would be to lose the election (in my mind).  Or the office.  Which happens anyway.  And faster when I campaign, when I lie.

The campaign is over.  And every day, that is my mantra as I pray.  The campaign is over.  And I lost.  Just this morning as I was reading, I came across a very well known verse, 2 Corinthians 12 where Paul talks about the thorn in the flesh.  But this time, a whole new fresh revelation about the verse hit me.  Paul writes in verse 9 after talking about the thorn “And He said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest in me.”

That’s the opposite of what has been my mindset.  I want to hide my lying politician, my infirmities.  But that is exactly where the power of God is – in my infirmities, in my weakness, then as Paul continues in verse 10 “for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

So, in the spirit of having dropped out of the political race – “Hey Everyone, I lie and try to manipulate the circumstances so that you will like me, think more highly of me, respect me.”  There you have it.    I’m not hiding it anymore.  That’s who I’ve been and who I am ingrained to be.

“Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, He is strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:10

– Daniel

 Meet the authors.
Listen to us discuss our blogs on our YouTube channel.