08/05/2026
Food for Heart and Life
080526 Fear or Knowledge
Good morning, everyone,
It is August 5, 2026, and already I am sick to death of the political advertisements on TV. All they serve to do is to remind me of the old adage, “How do you know when a politician is lying? His or her lips are moving.”
I don’t think I would mind them if the candidate would come on and say, “This is what I am for, and this is what I am against.” Instead, what we get is a steady diet of how evil my opponent is and labels that I suspect are rhetorical and intentional, Why would they do this, I hear you ask, Well I suspect is it so that you will fear one candidate more than the other. It is a sad thing when the electorate votes out of fear rather than hope. Or votes one way or another, just to endorse the lesser of two evils.
As I have been thinking about this, it dawned on me that politics is one of only a few areas where instead of touting what your product or person can do, it is against what the “other” may do.
All of this led me to think about what it would look like if other products did this. Here are couple of examples that I have thought about.
What if John Deere did this. “Farmers, Red tractors are evil, their operators cannot plow a straight line, they are endorsed by the maker so of cheap tires. The Red paint may wash away and harm the ground water, and so on.”
Or what if it was Pepsi and Coke? The Pepsi ad may say something like this, “Coke is only popular because those who drink it are addicted to it and who knows what addiction that could lead to? Coke is endorsed by AARP and those who are dying.”
These were funnier in my head.
Anyway, you get my point, so what are we to do? Well, each of us is responsible for our own choices. Will we vote out of fear or get informed. Now that is a slippery slope as well. I suggest that you read and listen to as many different sources as possible. If we only read and listen to those we agree with, there is no learning or questioning. We are not well informed, only echoing our own ideas.
Okay, so let’s get to the meat of this missive, it really isn’t about politics, tractors or even soda, it is about us as a people. I know too many people who are so sure that they have all the facts and figures about something, when in fact they only have one side or one view of things. Life does not work this way; faith does not work this way either. You see our opinions are formed by input and observation from our particular vantage point in life. This might give us a clear view in one direction; it does not take into account the information or history of others’ views or ideas. When off to the other side there are factors that we did not see or notice, thus we ignored them or worse deem others opinions or experience as either false or insignificant.
This is where fear comes into the picture, if your view only shows you what you are against, what you are already sure of, then fear wins your heart, but when you take the time to look around, study history, talk to others, learn what people are saying and look to the source material then it becomes what are you for instead of what are you against.
This is my political discourse for this election season; I also think it is good advice in most areas of life as well.
Grace and Peace, Gerry
