Without doubt, conflict, unrest, violence and blame have plagued the past week. Each day, as we have watched tense and volatile moments unfold and have sought to be slow to speak, the simple word that continues to come to mind, resounding on repeat, is “sad.” We are sad to watch anger and discord harm a country and countrymen we love so dearly. The loss of life and destruction of property have been heartbreaking. The vilification and censorship of political opponents is not surprising, but also ... sad.
Indeed, it has been a sad week.
Yet, as we prepare and even brace for what the next four years hold, we do so with peace. We do not look forward to being further censored, losing freedoms or being vilified as conservatives, but we face the future with shoulders high, knowing that wherever we stand on the Word of God, there we stand secure in His hand and approved in His sight. We gaze at the days to come full of hope and joy, knowing that with every day that passes we are closer to meeting the Savior face to face — whether alone or with the church, taken up into the sky in the blink of an eye. "What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see!”
In the meantime, even as we approach the earthly unknown, we embrace each day as an opportunity to tell the world that Jesus saves. Our task and chief aim have not changed with the shift to a new American administration: with or without the government’s applause or blessing, we will be fishers of men (Mt. 4:19), going into all the world (Mt. 28:19) to tell of the goodness of God that leads men to repentance (Rom. 2:4) and therefore of an everlasting eternity with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Perhaps Christians will be given the chance to serve the Lord even when difficult, like so many of our biblical predecessors. What an honor “not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for Him” (Phil. 1:29).
As Thomas O. Chisholm wrote in "Great is Thy Faithfulness" in 1923, we certainly have in Christ, "strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow."