Bob's Blog

So tell me . . . someone . . . please . . . tomorrow morning, when we all wake up to the results of today’s election . . . is anything going to change?  I mean besides the fact that political ads will be gone from the TV and my phone will no longer be ringing a dozen times a night, will anything else be different?

For months now we’ve witnessed the ‘handling’ of two brilliant men, both of whom love this country and only want the best for the American people.  Entertainment news on every side has spun the issues and positions, and wound up serving up candidates who appear to be nothing like the men they really are; and all the while, we, the citizens of this great country have twirled and feasted with it.  The right has pit itself has against the left.  Liberals have squared off against conservatives.  The rich and the poor regard the other as the enemy.  And rancor rules the day!  Is it any wonder that so many find themselves despising the very government that our fore-bearers fought so hard create and establish?

And we have let it all happen!  WE have allowed ourselves to become pawns in the crazy game of American politics, and as a result we’ve become a house divided.  We’ve forgotten that in the end, presidents do not have as much control over the direction of a country as we might like them to have.  Our system, with its balance of power, makes extreme positions hard to live up to, and as a result, much of our warring with one another has been for naught!

So if I may be so bold, may I make a few things clear on this Election Day?

First, Governor Romney is NOT an elite misogynist who believes that 47% of the American people are lazy freeloaders; and President Obama is not a Muslim socialist seeking to discourage people from taking personal responsibility for their lives.  Many people want you to believe these lies, but in reality, none of them are true.  And embracing such lies only leads to destructive demonizing and discord.

Second, regardless of who wins this election, we Americans have far more in common than people like Rush Limbaugh or Stephen Colbert would have us believe.  Their messages and their methods are designed less to inform, than to garner an audience; and their motives are no more pure than the politicians they malign.  So we must never allow their agendas to distract us from being . . . “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

And finally, to all who claim to be followers of Jesus . . . “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof!”  “This is our Father’s world,” and when we all wake up Wednesday morning, God will still be God . . . regardless of who will be serving as President for the next 4 years.  So let’s remember that.  Let’s remember that no party, politician, or president can save us from ourselves.  Only Jesus can do that.  And he is our only hope for tomorrow.  Not the Republicans or the Democrats.  Not Mitt Romney or Barak Obama.

So tomorrow morning, can we wake up as one nation, under God, please?  Can we wake up and agree to put aside our differences and focus on all that unites us?  Can we open our eyes to a new day, brimming with hope and possibility, and rally around whomever is elected?  Tomorrow morning, can we leave yesterday where it belongs . . . in the past; and for God’s sake and mine, can we please NOT start talking about 2016.  Instead, can we try to come together as the great nation we know that we are?

You see the future of this country is in OUR hands, NOT the hands of a president.  So if we want to live in a nation where justice rolls down like waters; where people recognize that ‘yes!’ we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers ; where liberty, freedom and equality exist for ALL people; if this is the kind of country we want, then let’s not make this the responsibility of the resident of the White House, but rather seek to live out these goals each and every day.

In the end, this is what it really means to be an American.  And this is really my only hope for . . . tomorrow morning!