My words to President-Elect Obama
I am part of a fascinating project at the Sojourners blog ... leaders offering encouragement and counsel to our new president.
My piece begins like this:
As you prepare to begin your historic presidency, I offer you these simple words from another senator of Illinois in whose footsteps you are walking. Abraham Lincoln said, "I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me."
Being a friend to yourself will mean at least four things for you:
First and foremost, it will mean keeping your soul open and connected to God — through prayer, through worship, through fellowship, through confession of your sins and mistakes, through constant thanksgiving, and through a sustained humble attitude of dependence on God. If you seek God’s wisdom, will, and guidance first, you will lead with the same serenity and strength that have brought you this far.
For the rest, go here ...
Also, I am part of the On Faith blog, where I posted on "The Maturing of America" - here. My post begins like this ...
Over my lifetime, I've had the recurring feeling that America was an adolescent nation beginning to come of age. Like a lot of adolescents, our national behavior was erratic, moody, reactive, hostile, defiant. We found ourselves popular, got conceited, broke faith with our best family traditions, made excuses for ourselves, blamed others when things went wrong. We flirted with the drug of war, had some bad trips, pulled back, then relapsed several times. We didn't know how to handle our money. We bullied our younger brothers and sisters. We got caught in some orgies of torture and other shameful behavior. Yet we thought we were "all that" and found it nearly impossible to admit our failures.
During this election, I felt that our nation was poised between the chance to grow up a little and the chance to prolong its adolescence a little longer. By choosing Barack Obama, I believe, we've chosen to mature into a more responsible and humble young adulthood as a nation.
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And now for something REALLY terrifying …
Enjoy this terrifying piece from the Onion ...
Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
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more responses … and yours?
This one comes from a "post-pentecostal" friend from Europe ...
I want to congratulate you and the world, for the right choice the American people made in choosing Obama as the next president of the United States. Even though many evangelicals, Charismatic/pentecostals are not happy with the election of Obama,
I am very happy! Africa is rejoicing today, because this time Africa has exported a President instead of a Slave!
This is from a friend in a swing state from a few days ago ...
I just wanted to say thank you for your wise and hopeful words throughout this campaign. The spirit of your words was in such stark contrast to the fear-mongering of much of the so-called "right." It truly opened my eyes to an ugly arrogance/ignorance (a dangerous combination) thread that runs through a good deal of evangelicalism. And I resonate with the comments on your blog this a.m.. As an American, I have the right to remain silent about my political choices, but I don't have the ability. :-) As a result, it is quite clear that many of my Republican friends think less of me."
Sojourners has put together a powerful and positive way to respond to the election. Check it out here ... I hope you'll sign on!
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Responses from friends …
I posted my first response to the amazing election results at the On Faith site, here.
Since I was public in my support for President-Elect Obama, I've been flooded with emails this morning. Here are three excerpts from Evangelical Christians who have written me this morning ...
An Evangelical friend from the US wrote ...
... While I didn’t vote for Barack (or McCain for that matter, as I’d like to see our government grow beyond a two party system) I have to say that, for the first time in my life, I’m something other than ambivalent post-election. Barack speech reflected many of the things that you offered as reasons to vote for him and I do think it was a great moment for our country. The end of his speech, where he talked about the 102 year old voter in Georgia, was spot on and hope filled. It was good to see.
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Congratulations, America!
Thanks to everyone who had the courage to vote for change over entrenchment, hope over fear, diversity over homogeneity, and reconciliation over division. So many people have put their skin in the game and worked hard to make this moment possible. This is good news for our country and a good moment for our world. There is much to be done, but we have begun an important journey. May all Americans celebrate this historic moment. May a new day begin. May God help us make the most of this moment.
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