How could our God allow this (a Trump victory) to happen? That is the question that gnaws at our hearts…
America was, in years gone by, a city on a hill, the leader of the free world, a Christian nation in a everyday sense rather than a political one. And over the last fifty or so years, we-the-people have turned our backs on God, his ways, his desires for us… late term abortion, aberrant approaches to sexuality and identity, moral relativism and secular intellectualism, rampant materialism and consumerism, self-centered gluttony and extravagance in the face of suffering, unwillingness to help or share; and in the church, flagrant self-righteousness, judgementalism, and power-seeking... these are the evidences of our collective turn away from Him. We have come to a place where we think we represent God, but don’t really need Him.
When Israel (repeatedly) traveled this road in the old testament, God sent them into exile to remind them of their need of him. Our modern day exile as a nation, exemplified in today’s election result, will be the completion of our fall from the hilltop into a dysfunctional degeneracy and depravity, our thinking and actions mired in futility or worse… we are going into exile as a pariah, and a cautionary tale, for all the world to see. Romans 1 is relevant (see v. 20-22, 28-29). He has given us over to our worst instincts, so plainly displayed in this man, Mr. Trump. This is, truly, exile for America as a nation.
But….
But not for all of us as individuals. Read Jeremiah 29:4-7,11 – words from God to an everyday people going into exile: build, settle, plant, marry, increase; seek the peace and prosperity of your city, pray for it. For I know the plans I have for you, plans for your good. Note that there is no wallowing in the tragedy of the fall, the exile. Forward, always forward.
Wow!!! This passage was given Jeanne and I on election night, as our national exile was being sealed. What a balm! Our mission is as always, unchanged. We are to be instruments of His love and grace, here, in the place He has planted us. “As Christians, we wait for Christ's return. While we wait, we love.”
Ours is not to manage the bigger picture. For each of us, His children, it is about serving God by executing on the Great Commandment within the small sphere of action and influence He has given us. Blessed, to be a Blessing. Mr. Trump could not be more irrelevant.
And so it falls to each of us (as it should) to, in the power of the Holy Spirit, make our lives, our neighborhoods, our communities what they should be, regardless of the national disgrace at the top. Ever onward, ever upward...