How do we make sense of the events taking place in our country and our world?

Let me disclose this to you: I am writing this column almost a month before it is to be published, so I am not aware of the headlines in today’s paper. But for some time, and at a heightened rate since the latest election, ours has been a divided country. How do we learn to get along?

I know something that makes some people uncomfortable. Good Christian men and women voted on opposite sides during this last campaign. Actually, that’s been going on for some time. The fact is that there is not a political party that fully represents the teachings of the Scriptures. And there has never been a candidate for any office that would meet all of those requirements either.

So what is a believer to do? There are a number of options, I suppose. Choose your party and stick with it no matter what. Ignore your party’s weaknesses, and accentuate those of the opposition. That seems to be the majority reaction at the present time. I don’t think it’s working.

Option number two is to ignore and avoid the political process all together. I am not talking about those who, this year only, could not get themselves to vote for one candidate or the others. I’ve met a few of those. But I am talking about avoiding the entire process no matter what. Again, I don’t think this will work.

Other options include staying informed (including really knowing what the other side is saying), running for office yourself, and seeking to encourage positive change in both parties. All of these actions can be positive.

But more than anything else it is time for us to trust the Lord and to continue in prayer. Romans 13 reminds us that God is sovereign over the affairs of human beings, and that he is at work to accomplish his purposes. I don’t think that means that every decision made by the president or congress is God’s perfect will. But I do believe that he can be trusted in the long run.

It is a dangerous thing for a Christian to become deeply wed to any party or candidate, because they will all let us down at some point. The reason is that we are all sinful people. We all let each other down.

But God has never failed us yet. He can be trusted. Would you remind yourself of that truth once again, and have faith that he will never let you down?