Barack Obama has been elected President of the United States! I must explain that I have supported him, yet in the past I have also voted other ways. Obama is my candidate of choice, yet he doesn't represent all of my beliefs. I am not going to use this time to explain some of those beliefs.
I was very proud of myself that I spent painstaking hours this year researching who I would vote for. While in the booth, I was proud of my choices and that my votes were an expression of my beliefs, though yet again not a full expression. But I was surprised that I did not experience the emotions of voting for a black man for President.
However, when they announced that he had won, when they put "Elected President of the United States," I was overcome with emotion and had tears flowing down my cheeks and a heart that was full of hope and happy unbelief. We just elected a black man for President. After all our nation has been through, after our greatest problems of slavery, and even when discrimination is even evident in our Constitution, our country still proclaims that our government is both dynamic and strong. I admit that this is hard for me to believe, but I am thankful that Barack has taught me to hope again. I guess you cannot believe that change can really happen, but you can hope that it does--and hope is a fundamental Biblical principal. Hope means that we pray, we remain involved, that in our heartbreak we stay with the program. I am so thankful that Barack has lit a spark in me that makes me think that just maybe I can hope again. That just maybe if we care about the things that God cares about and live by faith, hope and love then just maybe, maybe good will prevail for a time in a world of darkness.
And I must then direct my thoughts to the One who made all of this possible. Lord, thank you that you have prepared such a man as Obama who seems almost out of this world in his ability to persevere. Lord thank you that no matter what happens, you are still God and still sovereign. Thank you that this election may teach the Church that we cannot put our hope and our security in who is in power, yet we can still hope. We can still be the Church.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I voted in a mostly black precinct, and I watched person after person walk out of the polling place with arms raised in triumph, declaring his name. I didn't expect to feel so victorious when I fed my ballot into the machine and re-emerged myself. We must pray that God protect him and his family from murderous rednecks and that he truly can back up his slogans of change and hope while remembering that it is God who changes us.
Post a Comment