Is this the most important election of our lifetime?

You’re in a conversation and someone says, “This is the most important election of our lifetime!” What would you say?

While it’s theoretically possible that every election in the last 40 years has actually been more crucial than the last, and that this election is the most important in American history, the consistent panic over elections says a lot about where our culture is.

So, the next time someone says. “This is the most important election of our lifetime,” remember these two things:

Number one: Elections really do matter. Sometimes a lot.

Every election has consequences, and some have greater consequences than others. It matters greatly who ends up in Congress, the Oval Office, and in governors’ mansions. For example, it may mean the difference between a federal government that tries to force nuns to provide contraception versus one that respects religious organizations and religious freedoms. It can mean the difference between a Supreme Court that redefines marriage versus one that overturns Roe v. Wade. It can mean the difference between passing laws that protect children from medical experimentation and laws that encourage medical experimentation on children. It can mean the difference between protecting the rights of parents to raise their children versus laws that allow state officials to take those children from their parents.

These are not trivial matters, and there are so many more areas affected by election results, from economics to national security to dealing with crime and corruption. In presidential elections, it’s not just who gets into the White House, but the hundreds of advisors, agency heads, cabinet members, and others who come with a president and shape his or her administration.

Anyone who says that elections don’t matter or won’t affect our lives, so it doesn’t matter who you vote for is just...well... wrong.

However, it’s also important to remember...

Number two: Elections aren’t all that matters.

Constantly repeating, “This is the most important election of our lifetime,” encourages people to treat politics as ultimate. “If we can just get the right person in office,” some people think, “all will be well.” Or, “if the wrong person gets in office, all will be lost.”

But politics is not ultimate. In fact, if so much about our society rests on the outcome of a single election, it reveals that something is deeply wrong with our society. Specifically, it reveals the breakdown of the non-political aspects of life. Political thinkers call these “mediating institutions,” the units of society that are pre-political, such as families, churches, nonprofits, and voluntary associations. These institutions operate between individual citizens and the state and even serve to protect citizens from state overreach.

When these institutions are healthy, there is less need for government intervention. Without strong mediating institutions, individuals have nowhere to turn except the government and typically, the government is happy to grow into more and more areas of life.

It’s when mediating institutions are weak that elections feel so urgent. In fact, it’s when elections become more important than they should be.

Christians should never place our ultimate confidence in election results, single candidates, or a strong government. Because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, the future is secure even in the worst political storms. That’s why throughout history, even facing fierce persecution, Christians placed their hope, not in the state, but in Jesus Christ, who said plainly, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

That’s as true today as it was then and is the most important news anyone can hear.

So, the next time someone says, “This is the most important election of our lifetime,” remember these two things:

Number one: Elections really do matter. Sometimes a lot.

Number two: Elections aren’t all that matters.