So, politics…. Everybody was pretty shocked last week, eh? Still not going to talk candidates—although I agree with President Obama when he said that we should all be rooting for Trump to have a great presidency. Come January 20th, Donald Trump will be our president so regardless of how one feels about the man, we definitely want the success that comes from a good president. I’ve been praying that he (and his team) will have lots and lots and lots of wisdom about who gets appointed where.
Anyway! This whole campaign has in a lot of ways emphasized the divide in our country. I was disturbed when I went on facebook the other day and various people had posted saying something along the lines of “if you’re going to vote for/voted for (insert Clinton or Trump), unfriend me because I don’t want people like you in my life.” Kinda surprised how much of that was going on. I get that everybody was passionate about their particular candidate. They have some pretty different ideas about how the country ought to be run. I don’t see how solidifying the divide is a good thing.
If there’s anything I got out of watching such a close election, it was that our country is deeply divided and we all need to come together. Everyone who voted picked the person they thought was best for the country. Nobody’s trying to ruin the country. Nobody’s trying to destroy anyone’s lives. We need our different ways of thinking to make us better people and to grow us.
See, if we really do kick all the people out of our lives who don’t agree with us, we’ll never be confronted with different ways of thinking, different ways of doing things, different approaches to problem solving. We really are better together, despite how uncomfortable our differences can make relationships.
So, now that we’ve all seen how divided our country is, rather than letting our political differences divide us in the Church, let’s become more committed to the unity Jesus calls His Church to. No president or senator or representative can save us. Only Jesus is capable of fixing the world. Having Trump elected (or Hillary if she’d been elected) isn’t going to magically cause people to love each other, isn’t going to fix poverty levels, etc., etc., etc. It’s people going out and loving by the power of the Holy Spirit (which is way more than just tolerance) that changes a society.
