Three Fabulous Reasons to Celebrate Barack Obama

My husband and I cast our absentee votes about a week ago. It cost about six Euro to mail the old fill-in-the-bubble ballots. Worth every penny, even if I did have to pay the German post office to do it. We cast our votes. Then we waited.

We watched CNN to try to get a feel for how it was going yesterday. Facebook updates kept me abreast of the long lines and the drama. My level of appreciation deepened as I realized afresh the welcome void this year. Not having to deal with all the campaign ads. And the fact that, not even once during this entire 2012 election process, was I forced to take my eyes off the road as I drove past front yards bejeweled with seasonally decorative yard signs. Nobama! Or Vote Yes on Issue Whatever.

The sense of urgency and dread that I read between the lines of all those tweets and facebook stati (did I pluralize that correctly?) reminded me of my junior year in college. The year President Bill Clinton won the election and my teeny-tiny Christian liberal arts university in the middle of Nowhere, Indiana freaked out. Because, truly, we would all have to move to Canada. Our country was going to get that bad!

I’m not well-versed in political things. I will tell you that straight up. And I am okay with that. (Here’s where you send me a note or leave me a comment and tell me how I’m un-American and don’t fully appreciate the freedoms I have been given. Or maybe you can remind me that it is my duty as a follower of Christ to keep up on all the issues that face our nation. Please do. I love comments.) But I know my Real Leader. And I trust Him.

That’s why today I propose a celebration of our (not new) President. Three reasons to thank Almighty God for this election and its outcome.

1. God is working.

Even when He doesn’t do what we think He should. Even if you personally do not believe Barack Obama to be the best man for the job. God is sovereign. In control. Almighty. And maybe, just maybe, He is calling you to a deeper, more intimate trust-walk with Him by peeling away the luxury of having someone in charge whom you like.

2. If we disdain our leader, we only shame ourselves.

Here’s where the trust comes in. We don’t have to agree with him. We don’t even have to like him. But if we do not respect Barack Obama as a person whom God has allowed such power, we ourselves will disdain the very truths we stand for and consequently bring shame to the cause for which we stand.

3. Barack Obama is not God.

Phew! Glad I cleared that up. I don’t know the status of their relationship — Mr. Obama’s and God’s. But I know this. There is only One God. And He is the One in charge. The Sovereign and Holy One Who gets the final say. Even over Barack Obama. No matter what.

The issues are heavy. I realize that. But so is the truth. And that truth, which comes from God alone, is reason enough to celebrate. Even in defeat.

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