“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.”
– attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr
The 2024 election is over. The people of the United States have elected Donald Trump to be the next president. However you may feel about it, this is the result of the 2024 election.
In our church family, we have brothers and sisters in Christ who are all over the electoral map. During this season of presidential transition, I would remind us of 1 Timothy 2:1-2. “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” I am praying for a peaceful handover of power and that the institutions of democracy will continue to function healthily. I will especially continue to pray the Lord’s Prayer, that God’s kingdom may come and that God’s will may be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
I would also invite us to remember our sermon series from this past August, about how a healthy spiritual core (i.e., a strong foundation) for our lives can help us navigate this season, helping us to be winsome in our witness to Jesus and Christlike in our attitudes and behaviors. First, we regularly confess that “Jesus is Lord” and that nothing and no-one else is. Second, we pay attention to what we set our minds upon and ruminate about; we must especially resist allowing any media outlet to become the primary way we think about culture and the world. Third, we participate in practices that help us live bigger, more Jesus-shaped lives. These practices include hospitality as a way to invest in others, peacemaking as a way to pursue reconciliation, and serving others as a way of reflecting Jesus in a “me-first” world.
Finally, I would invite us to regularly bring to mind the beatitudes we’ve been exploring this fall, understanding whom Jesus blesses in God’s kingdom reign: the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those persecuted for righteousness sake. May we put our full confidence in Jesus’ words above any human words and may we place our ultimate trust in Jesus’ way above any human way.
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