Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The Devil You Don't Know

"A Romanian village re-elected Mayor Neculai Ivascu even though he died shortly before the election. Ivascu had been mayor for nearly 20 years. “I know he died, but I don’t want change,” said one voter."

Wow. how badly do we cling to the past. This little news snippet was in last week's issue of The Week, under their "Good Week/Bad Week For...the devil you know" section.

While certainly an extreme, this sentiment clearly demonstrates the bound nature of the human will. Despite a rational understanding of the candidate's status of 'dead', the voter's will was completely unable to follow reason. But instead the will turned in on itself out of fear, and elected a corpse to office. If humans are unable to get past their fallen, broken wills to elect a mayor, how much more completely unable are we to "vote" yes for God?!

Luther was right, the will is bound. We don't choose God, he loves and finds us curled in on ourselves, and by his grace brings forgiveness and light. Left to our own devices we will choose death again and again and again. Not life. Sorry Joshua. Makes you wonder who will be their next mayor.

No comments: