So…I have a new take on our election…this is it. It helps to be a world Christian. It helps to see elections in other countries. It helps to have a bigger view….and this is why. I listen to my friends living overseas tell of the elections in their countries. They don’t ask for prayer that the right person would be elected. Because usually there is not a right person running for office. They ask for prayer that the fraudulent elections or the crooked candidates would wreak less havoc and cause fewer riots than the last election. They ask for prayer that the church can be the powerful tool of God in their situation.

Oh, I know what you’re thinking. Yes, that’s what makes the U.S. set apart from the rest of the world and all that corruption. That’s what makes us different and better than most. Law and order is our foundation and our high value. Yes, I agree, but our great God allows what he allows.

Both parties seem to be more deeply flawed this election year and they certainly dishonored the reputation that the United States is often perceived as “under God”.

But the odd thing is that in places in the world who experience corrupt presidents,  leaders who incite riots, siphon tax money to Swiss bank accounts, persecute Christians, we often see God at work. We watch Him doing significant things in and through people’s lives who bend their knee to Him. We see miracles happen. History tells us that these trials only make the church grow stronger. Let’s pray to that end for the church in our country.

We just don’t know what’s coming.  And we wlll see what the church of Jesus Christ does in our own country in these next years. I have whined quite a bit. We all need to get on with life. Will we moan and lose courage to BE what we are called to be in this world? Will we be salt and light? Will we stand up and separate ourselves from worldly systems and live as we are to live, citizens of another kingdom? I pray that I will and we will.

Yesterday I read a wonderful blog by a Presbyterian pastor in Nashville, titled To All My Post-Traumatic, Post-Election Friends. Give it a look. It’s very inspiring to get a biblical view of leaders in history and how God worked in spite of them. Let’s all commit to pray more seriously about the Church that we are a part of.

As this pastor reminded me, “the most repeated command in Scripture remains, “Do not fear.” God knows how easily we fall into fear. He graciously steadies us and reminds us that He is with us—“Fear not, for I am with you” (Isaiah 41:10).