As this historic election winds down, I am at a loss for words. I can’t articulate the emotions I have felt over the past months and especially in the past few days, as I have watched family, friends, neighbors, online acquaintances, and others butt heads and tear each other apart. The things I have read especially today (the day after the election) have hurt my heart even more. I am truly thankful the election is over and I am praying for everyone in our country.
However, while the election is over, our work has just begun. Regardless of who won, my words would be the same… I pray we will come to understand that we are all called to love and to uplift one another. God does not want to see us divided! It should be our goal and the goal of our nation to make this world a better place for everyone. We have to work together if we want to accomplish anything. We can’t let divisions keep us from what truly matters.
True progress and true peace can only happen if we become peacemakers. And so, I leave you with the words of St. Francis who said what I can’t seem to find the words to say-
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
May God bless you.
May God bless our country.
I’m still trying to explain to all my kids why we elected a man who is so openly crude and hateful. My middle son is afflicted with a neuromuscular disorder that makes him move similarly to the way Trump mocked another sufferer. The day after the election, a member of our PE group (that attends one of the big evangelical churches here) openly made fun of my son and, when challenged and reprimanded, said that his dad said that he voted for Trump because “he says what everyone is thinking” so thought it would be OK to point out that my kid can’t control his limbs. This election is a nightmare for any sort of values. So sad.