When something is focused upon long enough, our minds begin magnifying it. It grows in impact and importance to us – for better or worse.

Facts and realities do not shape the world we live in – our perceptions do. A flea can look like a giant hairy beast under 100X magnification, while the moon when viewed with the naked eye from your backyard can be the size of a half-dollar. 

Like using a telescope to view the heavens, God has given each of us magnifying lenses to improve and enjoy life with. However, the objects we place under our glass can either hurt or help our wellbeing and relationships, including our relationship with God. 

Here are three major dangers to be aware of during this electoral season as each of us wields our magnifying glasses around.

Problem 1: Magnifying the negative

As humans, we naturally tend to magnify the negative. Even if it’s just slightly negative – in our thoughts, minds, emotions, conversations, and lives, by magnifying it can grow into a towering mountain. A common object of focus is health, which google receives more than 1 billion related questions about every day.

Here is an example. Imagine you experience sudden and slight stomach pain. Next step – Google! After 20 minutes of searching medical websites with your magnifying glass, a completely realistic and accurate self-diagnosis finally emerges. You learn you have an ulcer, a broken leg, depression, insomnia, intolerance to honey, and have lost 20 years off your life expectancy. What happens next? The body’s stress response initiates. Cortisol and other neurotransmitters flood your nervous and circulatory system. Your blood pressure, glucose, and heart rate increase. Then comes anxiety with its big questions: what about the kids, what about life insurance, what about my dreams? How will I be able to afford the medical bills? What happens if I lose my house? For God’s sake, what about the dog? 

Then, suddenly you pass gas. Just like that the pain disappears into the air and normalcy returns.

In a matter of minutes, such a small object of attention became so magnified that it created total domination of thought, even resulting in physical and emotional disturbances. Not a good way to use the magnifying glass.

But what happens when millions of people steadily hold their magnifying glasses over the wrong object all at the same time for months? More specifically, what happens to their emotional, mental, and physical states when a single political figure or economic/geopolitical situation becomes so elevated and magnified beyond reason? What happens is what is happening today – record rates of anxiety, stress, and depression, just to name a few. A stress response at a global level becomes activated. The heart rate and blood pressure of an entire nation go up.

Of course, many news outlets are there to kindly hand out their magnifying glasses with their various filters to double or even quadruple the magnification.

I am not saying we should deny the realities of today nor the importance of the election. What I am saying is that when we instead magnify the realities of God, our current national and political realities will begin to grow smaller. As a result, positive change will emerge in the lives of many. As the old hymn goes, “turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace”.

Magnifying God does not change His greatness – it causes His greatness to change us. King David personally experienced the transformative power of magnification:

Magnify the LORD with me and let us exalt His name TOGETHER. I sought the LORD, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears. THEY looked to Him and were radiant, and THEIR faces will never be ashamed. – Psalms 34:3-5

When problems are under our glass, fear comes, and joy flees. On the contrary, when the Lord is under it, especially when our glasses are together, fear flees, and radiance and joy come. If there is ever a time where America needs radiance and joy, it is now. And it will only come when we, together, start redirecting our magnifying glasses onto the right object. 

Problem 2: Magnification and idolatry

The second grave danger in magnification is that it tends to elevate the object under the glass. 

Any figure elevated long enough becomes exalted, and whoever is exalted becomes idolized – whether the figure is loved or hated. In fact, the greater the hatred, the greater the figure is elevated. The greater the elevation the greater control, power, and influence they have over you. 

Under some magnifying glasses, one presidential candidate is threatening while the other is opportunistic. Regardless, when stakes are high at national leadership levels there is always a grave danger in placing too much trust in any earthly king for our future outcomes. Israel and Isaiah learned this lesson in 740 B.C. When the national stakes were high concerning a King, God uniquely revealed Himself as a King in a robe sitting on a throne. The message: He alone is worthy of our complete trust, exaltation, and nation’s future:

It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. – Isaiah 6:1

Eventually, we end up looking like the object we magnify. If we want to look like Jesus, all we need to do is use our magnifying glasses to behold His face, and His Spirit begins transforming our image into His. This can happen on an individual and a national level. 

Problem 3: Magnification and mission

The third and final grave danger with hovering our magnifying glasses too much over our national situation is that it can cause the Church to lose focus of its primary mission. When a mission lacks focus it eventually stops advancing.

America is not the only nation where its general population was zealous for change. Take Israel for example in the 1st Century. Most of the New Testament was penned while it was under Roman rule. While radical groups emerged with failed attempts to regain power, the reality was that the underlying desire for change existed in the hearts of most of Israel – including the early church disciples. Let’s look at this further.

On one occasion, while Jesus was eating with them following the resurrection, He gave them this mission and command: “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” – Acts 1:4-5.

This reads well in hindsight, but at the time while the resurrected One stood in their midst revealing His mission, their response revealed what their magnifying glasses were on: the kingdom of Israel:

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Verse 6).

In other words, their question was: when this takes place Lord, does this mean that our nation will finally be changed and be restored? Will our nation finally become whole again? Will the turmoil and injustices stop, will the kingdom finally be what it was meant to be? 

I wonder how many of us are asking the same question today, especially during this election season. “Lord, is it at this time that you are going to restore the kingdom of America? Is it at this time that our nation will be what it was meant to be? Is it at this time that peace will come back to our land?

Jesus’ response to the disciples was quite interesting: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority (verse 7). In other words, “It’s none of your business, I’m not telling”. Could He be saying the same thing to America?

We need to be careful about demanding answers from God about America when the Messiah refused to answer His own apostles concerning the very nation He was born into. Sometimes, God doesn’t give answers so a heart of trust can be cultivated. 

Finally, just seconds before Jesus’ feet lift off the ground, He redirects their magnifying glasses of the kingdom of Israel and back onto the original mission: the kingdom of God.

The next verse:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight (verse 8-9).

There is power in magnification. 

Let us redirect our magnifying glasses back on the Church’s mission – something that transcends any geopolitical, national, or electoral situation our nation or the world could ever face.

Let us redirect our magnifying glasses off earthly kings and onto the King of Kings, at least for a little while. At the end of the day, they all “stand next to Him like a candle to the sun.” (Behold – Hillsong).

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” – Philippians 4:8