After Bachmann and Perry dropped out of this year’s presidential race, followed by Huntsman, I felt there was no one that I, as a Christian conservative, could support. Looking at what I felt was a sorry crop of remaining candidates, I came to the conclusion that although I couldn’t see it yet, there was surely one candidate who fit God’s criteria (whether or not he fit mine) . . . that one of them must be qualified to serve God’s purpose, whether I could understand God’s rationale for choosing that candidate, or not. So I began praying for God to either send us a better candidate, or to show us which of the remaining candidates was His choice, and that either way, “Thy will be done.” Since I have begun praying thusly, I have been a lot less panicky about the outcome of this year’s election.

Many are worried that a particular candidate lacks either the temperament or the experience or the __________ (fill in the quality that is your #1 priority in a candidate) to be elected president. But I keep thinking about the leaders God chose in the Bible: He voted for Joseph, even though Joseph was hated so much by his fellow Republicans that they sold him into slavery; He voted for Moses, even though Moses was a poor speaker and did poorly in debates; He voted for Deborah, even though the country had never had a female president; He voted for Gideon, even though Gideon’s father practiced the wrong religion; He voted for Samson, even though Samson flip-flopped on the true source of his incredible strength; He voted for David, even though David committed not only adultery but murder as well; He voted for Solomon, even though Solomon became so wealthy he could not relate to the masses; He voted for Josiah, even though Josiah was quite young and had no executive experience; He voted for Peter, even though Peter was a racial/religious bigot; He voted for Paul, even though Paul was too extreme in his religious convictions; and He voted for John the Baptist, even though due to John’s diet, wardrobe and residential eccentricities, many people must have thought him to be nothing but a crazy lunatic. God chose each of these “candidates” because they fit His purpose at a time when His people were in desperate need of a good leader.

I just think we all need to put away our preconceived notions about what makes a good candidate and turn it over to God to decide. Because truly, He’s going to make that decision anyway, and it will bode so much better for our country if the majority of us make that acknowledgement to Him in our prayers each day and stop acting as if the choice were ours to make.

I plan not to make my final assessment as to who gets my vote until the day of my state’s primary, in order to give me more time to discern God’s will for me. However, this comment from RPM during the live discussion on RedState last Tuesday night struck a chord with me: “[C]onservatism is fundamentally about character. Newt’s is questionable. Mitt’s debatable. Rick’s very defendable.” I’m guessing the first thing God looks at when choosing leaders is character, but that’s just me. And if you did not catch Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday morning, he spent at least the first hour and a half of his program talking about how Santorum is the true conservative left in the race. If Rush Limbaugh cannot recognize a true conservative, then we are truly sunk.

I know many Republicans are depressed about our primary choices this year; I had the same depressed feelings myself until just the last few days. Now I’m getting rather excited to see whom God might choose to lead our country back to sanity. I was especially enthused about rsklaroff’s A Modest “Proposal” diary that he posted on Thursday (http://www.redstate.com/rsklaroff/2012/02/09/a-modest-proposal/). What better way to unite our party than to have several of the past and present candidates as members of Team R 2012, whether as presidential candidate, vice-presidential candidate or cabinet member? In my opinion, Gingrich and Santorum should go ahead and pick as many cabinet members from this year’s crop of candidates as is practical and feasible . . . can you imagine the fear that would grip Obama’s heart should he see that we had stopped fighting each other and were united in fighting him?

I ask my fellow RedStaters not to discount God’s ability to “throw” the election to an “unelectable” candidate, should He so desire. Perhaps He’s waiting to see if we’re willing to trust Him to do just that . . .

OmaLinda