Rest and Reflect, Lament and Love

Expressing our sorrow, our pain, our confusion and frustration, our feelings of helplessness and even hopelessness; before God is the place to begin after an election like this one.

It wasn’t close. All the things many of us were afraid of, and were preparing for, like strategic voter intimidation, endless legal challenges, vote certification battles, and even the threats of violence–are all over now. Donald Trump not only swept swing states, did better than ever even in Democratic strongholds, looks likely to win the popular vote, and is now the President Elect.

That says more about our culture now, than even Donald Trump. The electorate was on the ballot this election, and a leader who exemplifies and ran on the worst of us: fear, anger, bigotry, lies, and immorality (actually amorality) won decisively in 2024. That a woman of color could not prevail spoke to the pain and dread of many people. All the Black parents I know are most fearful for the safety of their children without any accountability for the police and criminal justice system.

All of that is real. And all us who feel devastated and even in danger, and could easily plunge into despair, so that what we do today and these early days following the election are very important.

Allow yourselves to grieve, as I often counsel those who have lost a loved one. Grief is better and deeper than despair.

Allow the biblical notion of lament to reside in us as a response to what has just happened. Learning to lament, biblically, should be our first step now. Expressing our sorrow, our pain, our confusion and frustration, our feelings of helplessness and even hopelessness; before God is the place to begin after an election like this one.

Rest. Take the time to sleep and be quiet. Go for a walk, or do some exercise. Drink lots of water, and leave other drinks on the shelf for now. Eat healthy food that is good for your body, rather than lots of comfort food that won’t be good for body, mind, and spirit.

Reach out to people that you love and who love you. Spend time with your children and your family. Tell your loved ones that you love them–and need their love right now. Bless people often and seek God’s blessings for your friends and community, and even our country right now. Remember that God is at work in our nation and in the wider world in ways that we can trust even when we don’t feel it.

Don’t jump into strategy yet, even strategies of resistance. When there are things to resist, and there will be, we will find the courage to stand up, speak out, and resist evil as people of faith. But we need to rest first, then we can move to reflection, and eventually to action when and where needed.

I was very struck in all the endless places where I spoke during these last several months, many in battleground states, by how people in packed houses were “inspired,” to use their most common response, literally by the teachings of Jesus. At every event, I did thorough biblical critiques of the false white gospel rising up in American Christian nationalism, with its idolatry and blasphemy to use religion to bless fear and even hate, and seek power. But mostly, I spent my time just going through iconic texts of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which taught us how to believe, think, and live–one after another. The teachings of Jesus clearly did not impact or turn this election, but Jesus didn’t always “win” with secular power, and his followers won’t always either. Jesus went to a cross, and we will find out in the days ahead what following him will mean for us.

Watching so many Christians, old and young, hunger for and wanting to come back to Jesus has given me some hope that we might discover something very fundamental again. The movement of the kingdom of God, that we have been called into, was always meant to be a minority counter-cultural movement in the world–and still is. I believe that could happen in a time of tribulation like we may now be entering, and that could be an unintended consequence of the rise of the politics of fear, hate, and violence. But we shall see.

Some reckonings are coming for this country, for both Democrats and Republicans, and for our churches who have “conformed to this world, as Romans 12:2 warns us against.

But in the days just ahead, just rest, connect to those you love, offer lots of hugs, and take deep breaths by walking in God’s natural world or in silence in the places we live. Christians have been through such times before and felt their faith going deeper.

May that be so, and God bless you all.