Tuesday’s Outcome Matters. But What Matters More . . .

I care who wins Tuesday’s presidential election.

The outcome matters to me. There are policies I believe are better for us than others and there is a direction for our country I feel is best for my grandchildren and steps that will lead us toward it or away.

The outcome matters so much, in my mind, that I find myself stopping throughout my day to pray and ask God to quiet my spirit. I’ve reduced my intake of breaking news. I’ve increase my intake of God’s Word.

Because, I remember back in 1983 when Reagan was elected to a second term in office, there was a late night pounding on my apartment door.

One of my coworkers, ten years my senior, stood on my porch in distress. She trembled and wept in fear because the outcome was not what she had hoped. She was terrified. Truly terrified. She wondered if she could continue living in this country. She feared for her safety and wondered if her voice even mattered.

This was a powerful lesson for me. When she’d cried herself out and allowed me to pray for her, she returned home and I spent a long night talking with God.

I was fine with the outcome so I was calm, but I wondered if I would have been as fine if a candidate I abhorred was voted into office.

That night, I prayed for a faith deeper than the outcome of any election. I knew I couldn’t muster this faith on my own but would need to wholly rely on Jesus to supply it.

• I prayed for faith that would stand no matter who stands behind the seal of the president.
• I prayed for faith that believes it doesn’t matter who on earth hears or respects my voice because I have the ear of my heavenly Father and can approach His throne boldly in the name of Jesus.
• I asked God for a trust in Him that is greater than my trust in politics or leaders or earthly powers or influence or even freedom.

That was the night I began listening to the voices of Christians who live under hostile governments. Those who live as I pray I never do, in hiding, under constant threat of persecution, always at risk because of the name of Jesus.

These voices tell me that God is with them. They suffer, but their faith is strong that God is Sovereign and that their voices reach His throne.

If they can trust God for their lives, for their children, for their futures and still pray for boldness to proclaim His name, then I can trust Him and respond with grace even if . . .

Even if my candidate does not win.

Even if my candidate does win and people fill the streets with hateful cries and calls for violence.

Even if people I love turn from me because we disagree.

Even if people with power misunderstand or mislabel me.

Even if there is shouting and arguing (which unnerves me) or gloating and mean-spiritedness (that disheartens me) or division and threats (that distress me).

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear for God is with me.

Whatever the outcome, my life depends on Jesus and Him alone.

He is the author of LIFE.

He is the one who sets us FREE.

He is the LIGHT by which we walk.

He is the RESURRECTION for me, for my children and grandchildren, and for any who call on His name.

He is the One who is WORTHY and to Him belongs the glory, honor, and power.

He is the Beginning and the End and He is Sovereign over all that happens in between.

So, no matter the outcome, I will continue to:

Love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Love my neighbor as myself.

Rejoice in the Lord always and let my gentle spirit be known to all people.

Not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let my requests be known to God.

I will not surrender my heart to hate.

I will not yield any quarter of my spirit to fear.

I will not doubt that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Although I will mourn if the outcome is not what I desire, I will not be shaken because my life is in the hands of the risen Christ.

I am one of the redeemed and while some trust in chariots and some in horses, we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

This election matters because it is giving each of us an opportunity to remember that our inner workings are evident to God.

What matters more than the outcome is how we respond within the privacy, not of the ballot box but of our prayer rooms.

Do. Get. Out. And vote.

Do. Go. Home. And pray. Not just before the election but the next day and the next and the next.

Then, continue to love, worship, keep the faith, serve others, forgive, rejoice, give, and follow Christ.

Whatever happens next Tuesday, it’s not the beginning or end of anything. Jesus is the beginning and the end and our eyes on are on Him alone.

“Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, ‘Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (Hebrews 10:35-39 ESV).

Thoughts? I care about you and about what you have to say. I respond to every comment and reply to every email.

May God have mercy on us all in the week ahead and in all the days until we are home.