This is an email I sent to the stu\u00addents in my min\u00adistry the morn\u00ading fol\u00adlow\u00ading the 2016 pres\u00adi\u00adden\u00adtial elec\u00adtion:<\/p>\n
I would like to say some\u00adthing to the despon\u00addent and the jubi\u00adlant: the despon\u00addent should not be too despon\u00addent and the jubi\u00adlant should not be too jubi\u00adlant.<\/p>\n
You just woke up and feel as though you woke up in a dif\u00adfer\u00adent coun\u00adtry than the one you thought you lived in. You feel as though you don\u2019t belong. I want to encour\u00adage you: this will pass. There are rarely per\u00adma\u00adnent defeats in pol\u00adi\u00adtics. You will get anoth\u00ader try at the pres\u00adi\u00adden\u00adcy in four years and at the leg\u00adisla\u00adtive branch in two years. Remem\u00adber when Oba\u00adma rode into office? The Democ\u00adrats had the House, the Sen\u00adate, and the Exec\u00adu\u00adtive Branch along with most state guber\u00adna\u00adto\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal and leg\u00adisla\u00adtive offices. The days of the Repub\u00adli\u00adcan par\u00adty seemed over, yet now the Repub\u00adli\u00adcans have usurped the Democ\u00adrats in every one of those roles. Your turn will come again. Be patient.<\/p>\n
A few prac\u00adti\u00adcal pieces of advice for you in the mean\u00adwhile:<\/p>\n
1) If you did not reg\u00adis\u00adter to vote, do it now while you\u2019re moti\u00advat\u00aded. It will not take much time and is one of the few pro\u00adduc\u00adtive things you can actu\u00adal\u00adly do right now.<\/p>\n
2) You may be tempt\u00aded to blame the oth\u00ader side\u2019s vic\u00adto\u00adry on the basest of motives. The oth\u00ader side is racist. The oth\u00ader side is misog\u00ady\u00adnis\u00adtic. The oth\u00ader side is dri\u00adven by hate. Please hear this: they don\u2019t think they are. \u201cBut they are \u2014 I know it!\u201d Even if you are right that there are vile motives float\u00ading around inside their souls, you will not change their minds by point\u00ading that out. Instead, you must under\u00adstand your oppo\u00adnents in order to per\u00adsuade them. If you are gen\u00aduine\u00adly shocked that a large chunk of Amer\u00adi\u00adcans are afraid of the Demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic par\u00adty and what it would have done with four to eight more years of pow\u00ader, you need to read more wide\u00adly. Add to your read\u00ading list authors such as Mol\u00adlie Hem\u00ading\u00adway, Ross Douthat, Thomas Sow\u00adell, Matthew Lee Ander\u00adson, Rus\u00adsell Moore, Rod Dreher, and David French. If you use Twit\u00adter, fol\u00adlow each of them. If you don\u2019t, pay atten\u00adtion to their writ\u00adings. They pop up from time to time in the Fri\u00adday emails I send out \u2014 begin delib\u00ader\u00adate\u00adly read\u00ading the entries you think you\u2019ll dis\u00adagree with. Also, con\u00adsid\u00ader watch\u00ading Fox News from time to time.<\/p>\n
3) Pray. This is some\u00adthing you will have a chance to do at Chi Alpha tonight. #just\u00adsay\u00ading<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a good feel\u00ading when your side wins. Enjoy the moment, but rec\u00adog\u00adnize how ephemer\u00adal it is. When\u00adev\u00ader one par\u00adty sweeps into pow\u00ader across mul\u00adti\u00adple branch\u00ades of gov\u00adern\u00adment, cor\u00adrup\u00adtion and infight\u00ading ensues. Your team is like\u00adly in for a rough time two years from now in the midterm elec\u00adtions and will face a seri\u00adous chal\u00adlenge four years down the road.<\/p>\n
A few prac\u00adti\u00adcal pieces of advice for you:<\/p>\n
1) Rec\u00adog\u00adnize that some of your friends are gen\u00aduine\u00adly ter\u00adri\u00adfied right now. Peo\u00adple who are made in God\u2019s image \u2014 some of whom are your broth\u00aders and sis\u00adters in Christ \u2014 are in pain. Be empa\u00adthet\u00adic. Even if you think that their emo\u00adtions are overblown, acknowl\u00adedge that their emo\u00adtions are real.<\/p>\n
2) Pre\u00adpare for dis\u00adap\u00adpoint\u00adment. Politi\u00adcians rarely deliv\u00ader what you hoped for. The Democ\u00adrats did\u00adn\u2019t deliv\u00ader immi\u00adgra\u00adtion reform when Oba\u00adma was in office even though the Democ\u00adrats held the House and the Sen\u00adate. The Repub\u00adli\u00adcans will almost cer\u00adtain\u00adly get bogged down on issues that lat\u00ader prove to be incon\u00adse\u00adquen\u00adtial and as a result will let some of your high\u00adest pri\u00ador\u00adi\u00adties slip out of their grasp. Two years is not that long and Repub\u00adli\u00adcan offi\u00adcials will refuse to believe that\u2019s prob\u00ada\u00adbly all the time they have.<\/p>\n
Yes\u00adter\u00adday Amer\u00adi\u00adca elect\u00aded a pres\u00adi\u00addent for the next four years, but we know the King who reigns for\u00adev\u00ader. So acknowl\u00adedge the pres\u00adi\u00addent, \u201cbut in your hearts revere Christ as Lord\u201d (1 Peter 3:15a).<\/p>\n
Remem\u00adber Philip\u00adpi\u00adans 3:20: \u201cour cit\u00adi\u00adzen\u00adship is in heav\u00aden. And we eager\u00adly await a Sav\u00adior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elec\u00adtions mat\u00adter, but eter\u00adni\u00adty mat\u00adters more. Keep per\u00adspec\u00adtive today and always.<\/p>\n
God bless and I hope to see you at wor\u00adship tonight. I\u2019ll talk more about these things there and we will pray.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is an email I sent to the stu\u00addents in my min\u00adistry the morn\u00ading fol\u00adlow\u00ading the 2016 pres\u00adi\u00adden\u00adtial elec\u00adtion: I would like to say some\u00adthing to the despon\u00addent and the jubi\u00adlant: the despon\u00addent should not be too despon\u00addent and the jubi\u00adlant should not be too jubi\u00adlant. To The Despon\u00addent: You just woke up and feel \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cSome Thoughts About The Elec\u00adtion\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Quick post-election thoughts: the despondent should not be too despondent and the jubilant not too jubilant.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[117],"class_list":["post-4257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","category-rants-opinions-and-general-contrariness","tag-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-16F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4257"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4260,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions\/4260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}