By Elrena Evans
The 2016 presidential election is over. Donald Trump is president-elect of the United States of America.
Regardless of how you voted, there’s little doubt that this election was unlike anything we’ve recently seen. “One for the history books,” as the saying goes. And regardless of how you voted, there’s little doubt that this morning, emotions are running high. The divisiveness and bitter battles of the election season have taken their toll, and we are feeling hostile, angry, fractious, no matter which side we say we’re on.
Yet we are the Body of Christ. We are called to be one.
Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
~ Romans 12:4-5
How are we going to move forward? How are we going to find reconciliation and healing after so much mud-slinging, distrust, and fear?
If you voted for Donald Trump, are you going to revel in your victory? Or are you going to extend a hand to your brother across the aisle, and say “Help me hear and understand your point of view, help me come back into communion with you?”
If you voted for Hillary Clinton, are you going to mourn your defeat? Or are you going to extend a hand to your sister across the aisle, and say “Where are our points of agreement? How can we now come together?”
We cannot do this on our own. Our only hope is in God.
We cannot do this on our own. Our only hope is in God.
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.
~ John 16:33
The temptation to put our hope in our elected officials is strong. But our God is not the God of earthly kings and kingdoms; our God is the God of the poor, the widowed, the orphaned, the forgotten. And our God is the God of our salvation.
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, my soul.
I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
~ Psalm 146:1-5
We may not have been able, with our one vote, to determine the outcome of the entire presidential race. But we are able, with our one life, to determine how we live, how we love, how we go out into the world as the hands and feet of Jesus. We have the power of the resurrected Christ alive in our very bodies.
Let’s use that power for the good of the Kingdom of God.
Elrena Evans is the Communications Associate for Christians for Social Action. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Penn State and has also worked for Christianity Today and American Bible Society. She is the author of a short story collection, This Crowded Night, and co-author of the essay collection Mama, PhD: Women Write About Motherhood and Academic Life. She enjoys spending time with her family, dancing, and making spreadsheets.
