Something to Think About – Better Together
(What follows are words about the recent election with which I ended the sermon on Sunday. If anyone would like to speak about the election – or anything related to these words about it – please let me know. I am more than happy to arrange to meet with anyone who might want to talk more. I also know that Pastors Melinda and Vicky are also willing to do that. Simply let us know. Pastor Michael)
We just had an election. A pretty significant one. These elections, that come around every 4 years, tend to be pretty significant. Some were probably dreading it. Others, looking forward to it. And many, probably, feeling nervous and stressed about it. And now it’s over. There was always going to be an outcome. Some were always going to be happy about it. Others were not. The outcome was always going to make sense to some. To others, it was always going to make no sense at all. And… we’re still divided. And if the outcome went the other way, we’d still be divided. Half would feel that outcome made sense and half wouldn’t.
If we are divided, it is not because of outcomes like elections, but because we allow our thankfulness and thanksgiving to be dependent on those outcomes. This recent election simply illustrates in high relief what all of life is like. Every day there are outcomes. Big ones and small ones. Some will go our way. Some will not. Some will make sense to us. Some will not. We will always – naturally - feel more at ease when the outcomes go our way and make sense to us. But if our thanksgiving - and ability to be thankful – is based on desirous outcomes, we won’t be serving anyone’s interest but our own; not anyone else’s; and definitely not God’s.
That is why it is so important, to me, that we remember that God loves you. When God created you, God placed a little piece of God’s own self deep within you. And the little piece of God’s own self within you is the part of you that God loves best. And… God loves everyone around you – the person on your side of the aisle as well as the person on the other. That was true before the election. It is true today. And it is true even if that election didn’t turn out that way. All healing starts here – by accepting the love that God has for all of us. It is the only way to be of the same mind as Christ. Only then, we will be imitators of Christ, will we seek the interests of others alongside our own. Only then can we ever hope to have peace – real peace.
Personally, I’m tired; tired of division, because I will never stop believing that we are better if were not striving to be better together! And I’m tired when I think of so many people in positions of great influence not seeming to value togetherness like I do. But I am inspired by Paul and his letter to the Philippians. So I’m going to choose to do something about it. Like Paul, I’m going to choose to be encouraging and hopeful, to be positive. I’m going to choose to see the worth and dignity in every person and to think about how my actions affect others. And I’m going to choose to be thankful – not because of the circumstances, but just because. And I’m going to choose to believe that, somehow, someday we might experience God’s peace, even if I have no idea what it may look like or how it’s possible. I am going to choose to live that way today. I was going to choose to live that way even if the outcome was different last Tuesday. And I am going to choose to hope that others around me might want to choose to live that way too.
Blessings, Michael