Rachel Allord

Hey. Psst. Hey you. Yeah, you. You in front of Fox News. You with Sean Hannity droning in the background. Or maybe you with the Bernie bumper sticker on your fuel efficiency car or Love trumps Hate Hillary t-shirt.

Take a breath. And let it out again. This political season is crazy and it’s only going to get crazier so you know what we shouldn’t do?

Panic. We shouldn’t panic. That’s not going to help anyone. It’s not going to help your candidate win, or your nemesis lose, and it’s not going to sway your neighbor to your way of thinking. So let’s all calm down and count to ten.

I get the alarm. I really do. This is a time of swelling fear. That what’s-going-to-happen-to-our country ball of fear lodged in the pit of your stomach? I’ve felt it too. But this type of fear isn’t a new thing; it’s been around since before the days of Pharaoh and Napoleon and it’s rolled on down through the ages and it isn’t going away. (Not here on earth anyway.) 

Maybe, for many of us, we’re rubbing our sleepy eyes, waking up from a lull of false security. Like a two year old being roused from a nap, we’re frightened and crabby and we want to sit and cry and be soothed back to sleep. But we’re the grownups. We need to stay awake. And we need to try our best not to throw tantrums or say nasty things when we don’t get our way. I’m not saying don’t get involved politically; I’m not saying give up the fight. I’m saying let’s keep our wits about us and remember a few greater truths: 

It’s going to be all right. In the end I mean. The very end. Yes, for many people, the Trump/Hillary/Bernie trio is reminiscent of the three stooges, or worse—the monsters under the bed—but bear in mind that throughout time God has set up and taken down kings. One rises, one falls, and the world keeps spinning. What’s happening now in 2016 is nothing new, nor does it take Him by surprise. So exhale America. God is sovereign. Keep the big picture in full view, the picture that fades from sight if we only look at the chaos we can actually see. In the end, God will set all things right.

Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. The concept of the Holy Sprit (God himself residing in those who cling to Him for life and salvation) is, I know, craziness to the world. But hey Christians! Hey Church! Greater is He that is in you than whatever is happening around you. Stop shuddering in your boots and clicking your tongue at the TV. Stop shaking your head at the country’s doomed future. Do we have a blessed hope or do we not? Buck up little campers, we just might be in the world for such a time as this.

But how? How do we buck up? How do we shrug the fear? Well we can’t completely. We are mere humans after all. But we press in and we live in the light and we steady ourselves on the word of God, not the latest headline. We put our eyes on Jesus, not our candidate. We turn off the TV and turn our fear into prayer. And we pray hard and we pray big and we remember that we are but a vapor but a vapor that is treasured and bought with blood, and we show our children what In God we Trust looks like, not just how it’s written on our currency, but how it’s written on our hearts, written across our life. Now, right now, in this season.

(Check it out for yourself… Daniel 2:21, Esther 4:14, I John 4:4, Titus 2:13, Ephesians 5:8, James 4:14)