by Pastor Mike Middaugh

Some of you woke up this morning with a lump in the pit of your stomach. You wondered if the election results were really true, or a joke. Let’s call it like it is – many people are hurting today. Hurting because the result seems like approval and acceptance of offensive things that have been said. Or hurting because the future seems uncertain.

Some of you feel ambivalent. After a long, painful election cycle the end result may not matter much to you. It was a fight between two flawed candidates. Now you just hope for the best.

And some of you may be pleased. You feel that something has finally happened to shake up the status quo. Possibly you are right.

But where do we go from here? How do we come back together?

First, let’s make room for some time to grieve and some time to heal. This whole thing has been a mess from start to finish. Unacceptable, repugnant things have been said along the way. Let’s take a breath together now. Paul reminds us in Romans 12 to “Let love be genuine. Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another.”

Listen before you speak. If others are hurting, hear and learn why. If we can figure out how to do this as a church and as a nation we will be far better off.

Second, let’s pray for and work toward a better future.

Personally, I have my issues with Donald Trump. I don’t believe he is a good representative of a person of faith, which he claims to be. I don’t believe his words or actions set a good moral or ethical example for my children. I don’t believe he always has the best interest of the country, or the American people at heart.

But, as Sec. Clinton reminded us in her concession speech today “Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power and we don’t just respect that, we cherish it. It also enshrines other things: the rule of law, the principle that we are equal in rights and dignity, freedom of worship and expression. We respect and cherish these values too and we must defend them.”

One of the things that has always made America a great place to live, worship, and work, is that we have powerful freedoms that, paradoxically, unite us. Freedom even, to disagree. But through past challenges, our mutual concern for these freedoms has always caused us to come together and work for good.

So, I will pray for that now. And I will pray for our next president. I will pray that God would give wisdom, discernment, patience and a peaceful disposition to Donald Trump as he undertakes the great responsibility of leading the country. I will pray that he chooses good, knowledgeable, and level-minded people to surround and advise him.

And I will pray for all of us, no matter how we may feel right now, that we would find unity as we gather together under the banner of the True King, the one who has come, and who will come again, our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in his name that our true hope rests. It is his name that has the power to truly bind us together now.

Soli Deo Gloria. (To God Alone be the Glory)