The election is over (finally!). The results are in. And America is now looking around at the debris (to some, the holocaust) and wondering … what’s next?
I, for one, am shocked and (tbh) pleased. I have been a #neverHillary for 20 years, long before hashtags were even a thing. But I honestly didn’t think she could be beaten. And yet, somehow, she was. So today, my first emotion is relief.
And my next emotion is uncertainty. I did not vote for Trump, and I really didn’t want Hillary. (I voted for McMullin because it became most important to me that I respect the person I asked to lead us.) But Trump is in. And I have absolutely NO idea what that means. Will he rise to the occasion? Will he show a maturity that we’ve only seen glimpses of? Will he inspire the hatred and vitriol he’s accused of pandering in? I just don’t know. Trump is…all of this is…a whole new ball of wax.
And as we move forward, life will continue. Pundits will talk. Trump will take Obama’s place in January. Life will move on. But the important question is…what about the rest of us? How do we proceed? What will the next day, month, year look like? For us? Individually and as a country?
For me, it’s this. I hope it looks an awful lot like this (skip to the 4th paragraph from the end if you don’t want to read it all):
NOTHING WORKS BETTER (James MacDonald/Walk in the Word email 11/9/16)
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves (Philippians 2:3, NASB).
Are you having a tough day today? Been a little down in the dumps lately?
There’s a way to fix that—but not by “working on it.” The way to increase your joy again starts by doing “nothing from selfishness.” … Selfishness leads to every sin, and every sin invariably leads to discouragement, disappointment, disillusionment, and eventually to misery. Never to joy. … if you truly want to capture the joy that’s been so deftly escaping you lately, you must “do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit.” Nothing. Nothing from “rivalry,” as one translation says (HCSB), or from “selfish ambition,” as another puts it (ESV). Nothing.
This includes anything you do, whether intentionally or reflexively, to promote yourself and impress other people in hopes of getting them to see how great you are, how cool you seem, or how many good ideas you come up with. “Do nothing” to make sure your contributions at work or church or even just around the house are sufficiently admired and appreciated. “Nothing” to seek acknowledgement for yourself out of fear your talents will never be noticed if you don’t somehow point them out to people. “Nothing” to manufacture your own acceptance, promotion, popularity, affirmation, or happiness.
God’s Word would teach us that this grasping after self-promotion leads only to misery. But you can break out of this type of misery—you can choose to live in joy—right now, today, by doing “nothing from selfishness or empty conceit.” Choose instead to live in “humility of mind” by regarding other people as “more important than yourselves.” …
So instead of seeing people as a frustrating waste of your time, consider their need for being heard right now to be of more importance than what you’d otherwise be doing. Instead of making demands and asserting your rights, consider that what others need for doing their job or improving their skills takes precedence right now over whatever you were hoping to do for yourself. “Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4 ESV).
You can’t be forced to live this way. You have to choose it, and most people don’t. So you and they can just keep sitting there under that oak tree, shaking your branches and trying to stand apart from the rest and from each other. But you will never live with joy if you continue to stay rooted and planted in selfishness.
Choose self, and choose misery.
But choose humility—choose others—and expect the leaves to start falling off that tree of sin and discouragement.
