At this point, we do not yet know who is to be elected to serve as our United States President for the next four years. I most highly recommend that we commend the election process to the Lord in prayer. Let’s first of all pray that all who are eligible to vote will exercise this precious right and responsibility this coming Tuesday, November 8th. The results of this coming election will have significant implications for our own country as well as for the rest of the world. Because God has chosen to reveal Himself in history, voting offers an important opportunity to participate in the working of the Lord in our day.
In regard to the candidates who are running for public offices themselves, we might want to pray about matters such as the following. Hopefully, we will want to thank the Lord for the willingness of persons to run for the U.S. Presidency and for other public offices. Oftentimes, we are exposed to the glamorous side of persons who serve in public offices. What we can easily overlook is that for whoever gets elected, their lives in many ways are no longer their own to do with as they please. One is always under the eye of public scrutiny, especially the one who is elected to serve as our next President.
We might want to pray for continuing good health for whoever is elected to serve as our next President. The demands of serving in public office are very strenuous and require a lot of strength and energy.
Let’s pray that whoever becomes our next President will grow more and more into an awareness of the awesomeness of the position into which that person will be serving. It is one thing to aspire to an office of service. It is something more profound and demanding once a person has received the power to serve in a given way. For example, before I was ordained as a priest, I looked forward to serve people in this distinctive way. Once a man is ordained to the priesthood, his perspective changes. The priesthood calls for far much more than one could have imagined during the time of preparing to serve in this way.
We might want to pray that whoever is elected to serve as our next President will continue to grow in the ability to embrace the bigger picture of the setting in which that person is elected to serve. While our new President will want to do all that that individual can to improve the quality of life for all Americans, one cannot overlook the global implications that serving in this office calls for. Because so much has been entrusted to Americans in regard to resources to which a majority of the world’s population does not have access, much will be required of us as a people in our Lord’s eyes. Hopefully, whoever is elected to serve as our next President will realize that the role of serving the American people and that of serving persons all over the world is a both/and situation and not an either/or situation.
As we approach Election Day, let’s appreciate the importance of prayer in regard to changing the hearts and minds of persons. If and when our next President promotes policies and laws that go against the Law of God, let’s pray that the Lord would change the heart of that person and of all persons in positions of public responsibility so that they will be moved to develop and promote policies and laws which are in accord with the Law of God for the common good.
Even as the problems of our country and of the world have been going on for a long time, let’s pray for the gifts of patience and perseverance for those in public office who dedicate themselves to the betterment of our world in the Lord’s eyes. The problems that plague our country and the world will not be resolved or eliminated within the next four years. Let’s pray that whoever is elected to serve as our next President will receive the charism that is needed to draw persons of good will from all backgrounds of our country and of the world to work together to promote that justice and resulting peace in this world of which our Lord is the Source.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Nelson Beaver – Pastor