The day after the election

I voted this morning and, for the first time in my life, I went to the polls as an undecided voter. After I cast my ballot, the election official offered me an "I Voted" sticker. I refused. Frankly, I am not proud of the vote I cast. I am not pleased with either major candidate.

This election was the worst in my lifetime: a woman who is corrupt on a heretofore unforeseen scale; a man whose vulgarity eclipses any candidate in my memory and perhaps in American history; and a bruised and bloodied electorate that limped to the polls with this one thought in mind: is this over yet?

But what about tomorrow? What about November 9?

When Abraham Lincoln was elected America's sixteenth President, the Jackson Mississippian called he and the Vice-President elect, "... bigoted, unscrupulous and cold-blooded enemies of the peace and equality..." The New Orleans Courier decried Lincoln supporters as "hordes of fanatics and

negrophilists," and predicted,

The crisis now impending upon the whole country is a necessary consequence of the abnormal condition into which our dearest and most sacred institutions have been plunged by the success of our avowedly unrelenting enemies. . . .
The unmistakable fact stares us in the face that we are now in a state of danger unparalleled in the annals of our history …

Guess what? The day after the election, on November 7, 1860 God was still on His throne.

A hundred years later John F. Kennedy was narrowly elected the first Catholic President of the United

States. The next day the Chicago Tribune editorialized, “We are disappointed, of course, and so, too, are just short of half of the men and women who went to the polls on Tuesday. But they were outvoted and now they accept the verdict. So do we.”

On November 9, 1960 God was still on his throne.

On election day in 1988 many thought little of George H.W. Bush and his running mate, Dan Quayle. John Kerry, himself a future Presidential candidate actually said, "The Secret Service is under orders that if Bush is shot, to shoot Quayle."

On November 9, 1988 God was still on his throne.

A decade after George W. Bush emerged from his contested election with Al Gore, the Daily Beast wrote,

The obvious problem with making Bush president was the fact of the Bush presidency, a catastrophe in so many directions at once that presidential historians argue today about whether Bush was the worst president in American history or merely the worst since Grant, Buchanan, or Johnson (Andrew, not Lyndon).

God was on his throne the day after the nation's ballots were cast, and they day after the Florida's were certified. He remained on his throne ten years later for the Daily Beast's post-mortem.

Following President Obama's reelection in 2012, the histrionic Glenn Beck urged Americans to "buy guns, ammo, and stock up on farmland because this President will destroy America."

But on November 7, 2012, God was still on his throne.

And he will be tomorrow, too.

So tomorrow, the day after we hear either, "Madam President," or "President Trump," – words that half the country celebrates and half the country dreads – let's commit to these two honorable and immutable truths: We can trust God and we need to pray for the new President.

"Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!" (Psalm 43:5)

"I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth." (1 Timothy 2:1-4)