Thank You, Lord, for Sarah Palin

American politics has become so ungodly in recent years there may be no justification for a Christian even to vote any more, since any vote, usually of necessity for the lesser of two evils, is usually a vote for something or someone one's Spirit-taught conscience can't fully endorse.

Do you let the worst prevail because you can't in all conscience even endorse the less bad? Do you abandon the world of politics altogether as "of this world" because Christians are supposed to be in the world but not of it? Or do Christians have an obligation to vote against the worst because of our calling to be salt and light to the world?

I've been debating all this with myself for a while now.

Now I want to report that John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for Vice President has unexpectedly inspired me. My first knowledge of her existence came with that very announcement and the speech she gave on the occasion.

She comes across as an articulate, tough-minded and honest patriotic American motivated not by the usual power politics but a genuine desire to serve the country, with a record of already having faced down corruption as governor of Alaska. She's also a Christian, as well as an idealistic and very real and likeable human being rather than a self-serving politician.

I didn't think it was possible to be inspired at all in this election, it's all looked so hopelessly mired in the politics of sin and self-indulgence and anti-patriotism that took off in the sixties with the Cultural Marxists. Then along comes this fresh face with an honest and godly agenda and the personality to be persuasive, and I'm nearly giddy with the hope that God isn't quite ready to throw us out with the trash.

I say this even as Hurricane Gustav is approaching along the same path as Katrina of three years ago, that destroyed so much of New Orleans, again threatening that city along with the vulnerable oil wells in the area. Gustav is expected to arrive about the time the Republican Convention is getting underway on Monday. There are many levels of God's judgment to be thought about here if it disrupts that event along with devastating the Gulf Coast, leaving displaced persons and destruction of property in its path, plus the consequent rising prices across the nation.

Time will tell, but I'm rooting for Sarah Palin and for the country. I'm even rooting for John McCain now. A man who could choose Sarah Palin deserves my vote. May God have mercy in the midst of judgment.