Thoughts on Election Day

             It’s election day here in America.  A day of red, white, and blue.  Many people have already cast their vote, but others are waiting in lines at polling places, eager to fulfill their civic duty. It’s a day that’s supposed to be a celebration of democracy.  It’s supposed to be a day when we exercise our right to choose leadership for our country that will represent us and help to guarantee that our voices are heard.  It is a day that women and people of color have fought for the right to participate in.  Fought for the right to be included.  It’s a day that’s supposed to bring us together in unity as a nation with hope for a future that will bring us the promises our forefathers, white, male and slave owners they may have been, founded this nation to bring to reality. 

            As I sit here with a heavy heart, praying while doing my work, my emotions are muted.  I’m feeling some anxiety over what the days ahead hold.  None of the things this day is “supposed” to be are true today.  Instead of a day of celebration, it seems more like a day when I must cast my vote in a spirit of vindictiveness.  I must vote so someone else’s vote won’t matter.  It’s not a day of celebration at all.  It’s more likely to be a day of maliciousness.  And this foreboding spirit won’t end today. It’s unlikely we will find out tonight who the next president will be.  There certainly will be days or weeks of ballot counting and lawsuits. I wonder if there will be violence.  I wonder if the nation will be thrown into even more turmoil than it already is in.  I wonder if a country full of people who are already on edge because of the uncertainty in which we’ve existed for 10 or more months in this year that is 2020 will collectively reach its breaking point and turn on each other in a final act of desperation.

My prayers are focused today on the days following the election.  God already knows who is going to be put into office.  He doesn’t need my help with that.  But my cries to the Father are for peace and understanding.  I’m crying out for a renewed sense of civility, a greater drive toward dialogue and listening and relationship.  Oh, that we as a people would value those things over being right, over being the winner, over getting our way and looking out for number one.  My prayers are focused on people.  On the vulnerable ones.  On those who may get caught up in the violence.  Oh Lord, please protect them.  Put an end to the vicious hate that courses through the veins of those who refuse to see things from someone else’s point of view.

My desire is for a commitment to genuine empathy in the heart of every American.  My prayer is that people from all walks of life would create margin in their lives and take the time required to build relationships with one another.  To truly listen, to pursue deep connection with people different from themselves.   To be compelled to learn.  To read and to talk and to listen and to spend time together and to find common bonds that will show us just how similar we all are at the core.  We must rid ourselves of the dualism that plagues us.  Life is not a zero-sum game.  I don’t have to be wrong if someone else is right.  I don’t have to lose in order for someone else to win.  Life is so much more complex and rich that that. God has created us all with the capacity and freedom to see beyond the simplicity of black and white and well into the grey areas that bring beauty and richness and commonality.

And so we wait.  We do our duty and cast our vote.  We pray for peace.  We pray for hope.  We pray for endurance for the days ahead.  We teach our children the values that are dear to us and pray that God would guide the next generation into steps that are greater than ours. Most of all, we pray for our nation, for its leaders, and for the world.  We pray for wisdom and patience and a spirit of goodwill.  May we learn from the lessons of the past to create a future that, even with all its complexities, brings us deeper into relationship with one another and offers a glimmer of hope for positive transformation.  Almighty God, we put our nation in Your hands.  We submit to your will.  Be gracious to us, O God.