What just happened? If you’re distracted by mundane minutia, you might have missed the significance of a once-in-forever happening. If you’ve got a big-big-picture perspective, it’s the greatest shock-and-awe happening of all time. “Epic” doesn’t begin to describe it. How are you processing it?

This is a really, really important Point of View, but I want to employ a communication tool that was Jesus’ constant default. When He used metaphors – a figure of speech that compares two unrelated subjects – to bring the supernatural into understanding by likening it to the familiar or mundane, we call them parables. Sheep, farmers, wayward sons, lost coins were all depictions that had far bigger meanings, according to Him.

Allow me to render a description of our known world and create the reflection into the known-by-faith world. You and I live in both; actively managing our lives in sync with mortal and eternal is no small feat. I’ll describe a political – not partisan – phenomenon that captures us all every four years and bring it into play with the Big Picture that supersedes it.

In America, every four years is a presidential election cycle. Myriad additional positions and initiatives are on the public ballot in November of those years, but the top-of-the-ticket decision – who will be installed as the President of the United States, and de facto Leader of the Free World – captures global attention.

Our lifespans are measured in Earth Years, but people who live for politics divide their birthdays by four to cite the number of election cycles they’ve experienced. Their calendars shift from the days counting down to the next election to the days since the new president has been in office. There’s a gap between the two…

By law, the election is scheduled on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November, every fourth year. That follows a run-up that includes registration as a candidate, conduct of a campaign, rising through primary elections and – ultimately – becoming a political party’s nominee to appear on the ballot. In our distant-past analog era, outcomes were often declared the morning-after the polls closed. In the modern, automated “digital age,” results can be delayed for days/weeks as the mash-up between paper ballots and machines grinds the process to a standstill. The election tells the tale.

As soon as the votes have been verified, a winner is declared. Absent destabilizing conflicts, the victor is now declared to be the “President Elect.” For the next 11 weeks, the outgoing President continues to have the power given to him/her by the Constitution, but they’re often labeled a “lame duck,” because their remaining days in office are counting-down. 

Drama is played out in real-time: the Lame Duck can go from benign to bellicose, and seek to act in contentious ways to direct agencies and divert dollars in keeping with his/her agenda, in stark contrast to the incoming team’s direction. All-the-while, the President Elect is announcing his/her picks for prime spots in their coming administration, but they won’t be installed until after the Inauguration.

Allow me to take what we know all too well, and apply it to the Kingdom, and yesterday.

Easter was the “election”: the Resurrection was the resounding victory. The God of this World has been out-ranked by the King of Kings/Lord of Lords. The results have been tabulated; it’s done.

Now, Satan is the lame-duck, out to exercise his waning authority to the max, leading up to the invisible version of the inauguration, which is the Second Coming of the King. When He comes, it’s game-over for the conflict. 

His administration will be put into office; leaders at every level will be installed – in spots they earned through faithful service to Him (between the Resurrection and the Return). The new power structure will be in place… forever.

Yesterday – Easter – commemorated the electoral landslide. We’re in the time-warp between the conclusion and the beginning! Let’s get busy and secure our spots in the New Earth line-up!

Living the Resurrection outcome, because nothing else matters as much,

Bob Shank

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