The deep Monday morning sigh when the alarm goes off too early after a night of poor sleep is perhaps the best parallel to describe how I feel as an American facing the November 8 election.  I am resigned to what is facing me and will get up and move forward, but am in no way prepared for it, nor am I excited about its prospects.  I fundamentally reject the premise of this reality and hitting snooze, Rip Van Winkle style, is an increasingly attractive alternative to me.  I am tired.  I feel trampled underfoot by a herd of angry, stampeding hippos. I’ve been staring at the sample ballot I will have to vote on soon and I really, honestly, have no idea what I am going to do.

Not knowing how to move forward, and knowing that forward is coming whether I like it or not, is unsettling. This presidential election season has been a steady untethering for American political standards and expectations. Up is down, west is east, in is out. Nationally, the feeling of being adrift is palpable. And yet, I can come back to this: I know that the nature of God is love itself.  And He knows and sees it all. I can trust in those two things as my plumb line when everything else I see is a squiggly mess. God will grab my shoulders and steady me towards Him. And the path towards him will probably look a little different for each of us, because he is so beautifully personal and knows us all so well. We need to be together, to pray together, and encourage one another to stay the course and cling to the one fixed and eternal thing, God.  And He, thankfully, is not of this earth.  In this time, we might need to let go a little bit more of this life and the things in it.  Perhaps that is one benefit of this untethered and unsettled feeling many of us are experiencing: it shakes us loose from ground we can’t hold onto forever anyway, and reminds us of the only true foundation we have.

In closing, here are some words I found very encouraging this week: “…God is not only just, but also merciful, as he judges the nations. In these closing weeks before the election, all American Christians should repent, fast, and pray—no matter how we vote. And we should hold on to hope—not in a candidate, but in our Lord Jesus…We serve the living God. Even now he is ready to have mercy, on us and on all who are afraid.” – Andy Crouch