Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3.5-6

 

As I write this, the election is looming on the horizon. Chances are, you are reading this after the votes have been counted, and we know who our leaders will be for the coming years. Whoever is elected, we are going to need to ‘trust in the Lord,’ and as we ‘acknowledge God’ – that is, give Him His rightful place in our lives, ‘He will make our paths straight.’ While that phrase can mean that God will ‘direct our paths,’ it also suggests that as we trust the Lord, our lives will be less prone to anxiety, and we’ll stay on the pathway that God wants for us.

 

But how do you trust in the Lord when you don’t know who’s going to win the election? We’ve all heard the vitriol that gets exchanged in opposing campaigns – and while there may be truth in what is said, it’s often subject to hyperbole. I won’t repeat some of the ad hominem nonsense that is being thrown about (predominantly from one side in the presidential contest, but from all sides in local races), but it truly can be hard to keep our equilibrium when we hear these things.

 

I recently read of Abraham Lincoln’s campaign for the presidency in 1860. He was mocked because he had little political experience. His opponents said he was dumb, that he would be an embarrassment to the nation. The Charleston Mercury called him a “horrid looking wretch”! Cartoons showed Lincoln dancing with black women, or steering a ship with a black man embracing a young white girl sitting at his feet on deck (this would have been scandalous at the time). Other cartoons were cruder and more racist. Historians say that the attacks on Lincoln were unlike anything that had happened before in a national election. One deranged opponent said Lincoln wanted to force the inter-marriage of black and white children (a Trump opponent recently said he would break up interracial marriages and deport the minority spouses!) – that if Lincoln was elected, within “ten years our children will be the slaves of Negroes.” Wow. How wrong can you get?!

 

And yet, there were Christians in 1860 who wondered what the future would bring – and how to ‘trust the Lord’ in those times. Little did they know that the coming years would be the bloodiest in our nation’s history, as the Civil War resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Perhaps there is a lesson in this backward look for us to take to heart now. Those who trust in the Lord don’t falter when things don’t go our way. In fact, that’s when we trust in the Lord the most. We don’t know what the coming years will bring, but regardless, we trust in Him.

 

Whatever the outcome of this election, let’s remember: God removes and establishes ‘kings’ (Dan. 2.21), and who He raises up to lead our country should never determine whether we trust in Him or not. His purview is far greater than ours, and His ways are inscrutable. What we do know is how the story ends: It’s all His-story! So trust in the Lord, and acknowledge Him.