Prayers After Election Day

I returned to words that I wrote after the first election of Trump. They are still relevant, so I'll post them today:

Let me also remember history, both modern and ancient. I'm choosing to focus on all the leaders who haven't been great to begin with, but have risen to greatness. I won't be focusing on the opposite kind of leader as I think back through history. I will remember the leaders who seemed a disastrous pick at the time but who went on to bring about important changes that we'd have never dreamed possible. I will think of leaders who had hard rhetoric and harder hearts, but found a way towards a softened stance.

I will remember my words, all the ways that I have seen the world I thought I knew come through a time of transformation. I'm thinking of eastern Europe--that wall that came down suddenly in 1989. I'm thinking about Nelson Mandela released from jail and shortly thereafter, to become the first freely elected president of South Africa and a nation transformed--that outcome was so impossible that few of us dared to hope for it. Somewhere in my photo albums, I have a fading picture of a friend wearing his "Free Mandela" t-shirt. He'd been in jail for our whole lives, and we expected he would die there, t-shirts or no t-shirts.

I think it's important to remember how strong the forces of evil seemed then. But we built our shantytowns on the lawn, we helped Central Americans get to Canadian safety, we demanded changes in U.S. policy which were ignored or dismissed. We bought our protest albums and went to concerts. Elders sneered and warned us about the necessity of establishing anti-communist bulwarks, even if they were staffed by genocidal maniacs, as much of Latin America was in the 1980's.

For some of us, the forces of evil, or at least chaos, seem to be strong and gathering now. But perhaps it's not as bad as it seems. Maybe this time of divided electorate and hateful vitriol will be what spurs many of us to get back to work creating and safeguarding the kind of nation where we want to live.

It could happen. It has happened. It will happen again.

Today is a good day to pray. We will have some turmoil across the world; the world will need our prayers.

Let me begin:

Creator God, on this day after the election, we pray for our country and for all countries. We pray for our leaders, those of our country and those in other countries who will now need to work with new leaders. We pray for all citizens, that we may be involved and not passive. We pray to find a way to bind the wounds and create a world that is closer to the one that you intend for us.