Signs of the Season
Our Christmas tree and most of the decorations are up.
I’m making progress on my shopping lists and the packages are rolling in.
Tonight, my husband and I watched one of my favorites—Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which first aired 60 years ago when I was just two years old. Based on how many lines I know by heart, I’ve probably seen it nearly 60 times!
Last Sunday, our church sang “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and lit the first advent candle.
I’m writing this on December 6—St. Nicholas Day. Although we no longer fill our kids’ wooden shoes with candy, ornaments, and other little trinkets, St. Nick’s Day signals we’re officially in the Christmas season.
But remember what was happening just one month ago? Wasn’t there some kind of election going on?
Oh yeah. That.
While we’ve tried to shift gears and put on our “Christmas Spirit,” it’s hard to ignore the daily news stories, the continued discord in American politics, and the general feeling of unrest—often between neighbors, friends, and families.
After the election, I wrote the following piece for our church denomination’s online magazine. It has helped me shift from “angst” to Advent. I pray it will help you too.
This article was first published in TheBanner.org’s “As I Was Saying” column on November 29, 2024. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Election Angst: Put No Confidence in Princes
It was the night before the U.S. election, and I couldn’t sleep. My mind turned over the possible outcomes and scenarios to the point of exhaustion. Would my candidate win? What if they didn’t? Would the world as we know it fall apart? I prayed. I asked God to let my side come out on top. Having “my person” as president would give me—us, our country—the confidence to move forward.
I calmed my spirit and listened for God’s voice. I’ll admit, I rarely hear his actual voice. But once in a while, words come to my mind that I was not searching for. It’s as close to hearing God’s voice as I’ve gotten.
As I prayed near the midnight hour, this is what I heard:
Put no confidence in princes.
The words popped into my head along with the tune from the old hymn, “Praise the Lord, sing Hallelujah!” They gave me pause. Was I—were we, the country—putting too much confidence in the “prince” or “princess” of our party in the current U.S. election? After all, it felt like my person was the only hope for our broken nation. I asked that God would help me hold things more loosely, drifted off to sleep, and didn’t give “the voice” another thought.
A day and a half later, I woke bleary-eyed. With results trickling in during the night, I knew what I was waking up to. Once again, we were a divided nation. One half of the population was celebrating a victory. The other half grieving and gloomy. How would this result bring us closer together and mend the gap? How could this bring any peace? My mind—fuzzy from two nights of interrupted sleep—was also numb after months of campaign ads, newscasts, articles, and podcasts. I was relieved it was over. But still wondering what this result meant for me, our family, our faith, and our country.
As I got ready to shower, out of nowhere, the words—the voice—again, popped into my head:
Put no confidence in princes.
A Persistent God
It turns out God can be pretty persistent. The words had come to me without praying. I was only half awake and not seeking God’s wisdom. But there they were, for the second time. I grabbed my phone and Googled the line. Based on Psalm 146, the hymn (in the Gray Psalter Hymnal) goes like this:
The words convicted me. I, and others siding with my party, had been putting all our confidence in our candidate. And the other party? It was the same for them and their candidate. Depending on whose “side” you were on, the days after the U.S. election likely found you either jubilant and gloating or anxious and pessimistic about the next four years.
But as Christians, we should feel neither. Instead, we should remember God does not belong to or espouse one political party. As the words of that old hymn based on Psalm 146 remind us, “Over all God reigns forever; through all ages he is King.”
We should know better than to count on faulty, fallen human beings to “fix” everything. Yet we side with and depend on human strength, policies, intellect, and charisma. Psalm 146 reminds us it is God who feeds the hungry, frees the prisoner, raises those suffering from anguish, gives sight to the blind, and helps the orphan and widow. As for humans, even the biggest and brightest leaders among us will eventually die and return to dust. Leaders have come and gone for millennia, but God remains.
Our God is a persistent God.
Where does that leave us?
Does that mean we can be indifferent toward politics? I don’t believe so. It’s unsettling to hear Christians use the phrase, “God is in control,” as a simple platitude—one that excuses them from seeking the truth, becoming educated in political affairs, or actively seeking social justice.
God calls us to be a light in this world—to build his kingdom on earth. He commands us to care for his creation, to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the needy, care for the sick, and visit prisoners. Whether we’re volunteering in a hands-on capacity or actively seeking bipartisan solutions, our focus should be one of love and compassion.
In these times of strained relationships and a divided nation, our greatest prayer should not be for our side to be right—to be on the winning side.
If we are on God’s side, we are already on the winning side. Our assurance is in Christ, whose death on the cross was a most unconventional form of victory. He emptied and humbled himself—a model for us to follow—and in doing so, his name was exalted above every name (Phil 2: 7-11).
Christ calls us to be his instruments of peace. Another old hymn—Make Me A Channel of Your Peace—comes to mind. The words are a prayer, asking God’s help in channeling peace to counteract hate, injury, doubt, despair, darkness, and sadness—by instead bringing love, healing power, faith, hope, light, joy, and understanding.
In our hearts, families, country, and the world, our greatest need is for the love of Christ to prevail.
Put no confidence in princes, nor on human help depend.
There is only one Prince in whom we can truly put our confidence. During Advent, we cry out for his saving grace in a broken world. We remember his birth and await his return.
Lord Jesus, Prince of Peace, come quickly. On your help alone, we depend.
I, too, had some angst over the election, but I forced myself to remember that God already knew how the story will end. No matter who is in charge on earth, there will be victory! Thanks for the reminders!