Above: My daughter watching the election. She wore my feelings on her face. 

I’m learning that freedom and security in our world are simply mirages.

Perhaps the more unbelievable and comical aspects of this election are the responses that flood my Facebook feed and the corners of cable television in the wake of such brutal campaigns. It is quite amusing that we are, in the least bit, surprised by the results of this election.

I understand that many of my readers are optimists. And many of my friends are hopeful. And we should be. As followers of Jesus, we should know hope intimately. As humans with hearts and heads, we should be sensitive to the wellbeing of one another, and the basic human rights of all people.

But, I must admit, in light of prophecies outlined in Scriptures and the recent tune of our society at-large here in the United States, I am not the least bit astonished by our options in candidates or by the outcome of this civil war masked as an election.

I feel an urge to share some observations as a woman who has had the privilege of knowing a wide array of people types in my short journey. I know some of our nation’s wealthiest and some of our nation’s poorest people. I know people of color, people of various faiths and spiritual convictions, republicans, democrats, libertarians, and socialists. I have known people washed in elite academia, people educated by hard knocks from life on the streets, people who have had their futures secured by trust funds, people who have never known financial security, farmers, financial gurus, doctors, and the mentally unstable. I have brushed shoulders with pastors, politicians, prostitutes, professors, drug dealers and professional musicians. And among all of these people, I have noticed that we have one thing in common:

We all claim to be people of love.

Continue reading “The American Heart” →