The day after any national election is usually one of powerful and diverse emotions – celebration and relief on one side, disappointment and grief on another – and never more so than after an election as grueling and at times divisive as this one. Yet amid these divergent and conflicting emotions, I find myself filled with a sense of gratitude and grace that has little to do with the election results themselves but rather springs from several elements of the day, elements that while viewed perhaps as peripheral by many seem to me to be at the very core of who and what we are as a people. Here are the ones that immediately come to...
Daring Greatly
posted by DJL
Today’s poem is, well, not a poem. Rather, it is a portion of a speech given by Teddy Roosevelt at the Sorbonne, in Paris, in 1910. I was introduced to it by reading Brene Brown’s recent book, Daring Greatly, which is not only a fantastic read but whose title is inspired by Roosevelt’s...
Campaign Fatigue
posted by DJL
The young girl pictured here is Abigael Evans, and this is her reaction after seeing one – or maybe one hundred and one – too many campaign commercials. Abigael’s mother posted this on YouTube this past Tuesday and four million views later I think it’s captured the way a lot of...
Faith and the Electi...
posted by DJL
Three beliefs I hold are central to me as I approach this election. 1) God works through elected officials to care for God’s people and world. Indeed, I would say that God sets up the office of public official for precisely this reason (see Romans 13:1-7). For this reason, elected officials...