The Next Four Years
Well, it’s Wednesday. The election is over, and someone won…or maybe they’re still counting votes – I don’t know…because I’m writing this on Tuesday morning before the polls opened or a single state was called! So I don’t know whether Harris or Trump (or the third party surprise write-in!) will be our President for the next four years. But regardless of who our next President will be,
what will we be for the next four years?
We will be the church of Jesus Christ.
We will seek to grow up in to him – and step up to follow him – in every area of life, or as we say, we will seek to live by faith in him.
We will seek to love others – our neighbors and our enemies – in the way that he showed us how to love, so that we will be known by love.
We will seek to live our lives in the world – as individuals and as a body – in such a way that by our words, our actions, and our presence, we will ‘speak’ hope into our world, being a voice of hope that echoes his own voice.
In a world that might be overflowing with bad news (especially on a day like today if our candidate lost!), we will seek to believe and embody the overwhelmingly good news of Jesus – the Gospel – in a way that changes the world from the ground up.
Or, as Paul tells us in Romans 12, we will…
9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
There’s more to it than that of course (but not less!), but that’s a snapshot of what we will be for the next four years, regardless of who holds the highest office in our country. Though we live in the United States of America – and most of us are citizens of it, our true citizenship is in heaven. We are here, as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5:20, to be “ambassadors for Christ” – through whom “God is making his appeal” to a hurting world.
What God has made us for, and what the world will need for the next four years – and well beyond that! – is for us to be a voice of hope as a people known by love because we live by faith in Jesus.
That is what we will be for the next four years.
May we “step up” to that awesome calling.