by Shari Prestemon
Acting Associate General Minister and Co-Executive of Global Ministries, United Church of Christ
The deadline for this column was one day before the November 5 election. By the time you read this, we might know the election results. Or we might not.
That kind of anxious uncertainty has plagued me these last few months as our nation careened toward Election Day. I could feel it taking up residence in my body, a chronic unease I found difficult to shake. It woke me up too early in the morning and had me exhausted too early at night. And those endless candidate commercials? Don’t even get me started.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), I’m not the only one feeling this way. In APA’s 2024 Stress in America survey, 69% of U.S. adults said the presidential election caused them significant stress. Fifty-six percent of respondents said they were worried the 2024 election could be the end of democracy in the United States, and 74% feared the election results could lead to violence.
All those statistics confirm what we already surely know: our nation is painfully and deeply divided. It feels as if we’re teetering on the edge of a very steep cliff while the whole world is watching. And that is taking a serious toll on all of us: as individuals, as congregations and communities, and as a nation. This path we’re on is unsustainable and unhealthy.
I wish that I cared about all of it a little less. Or that I could simply look the other way. But my faith won’t let me. My faith won’t allow me to be content with a status quo that is so damaging, or to cynically insist there’s no reasonable hope of change. Instead of ignoring the brokenness all around me, I’m called to repair whatever I can. Instead of allowing myself to become consumed with anger, I’m invited to focus on compassion and mercy. Instead of dismissing or demeaning the person I fundamentally disagree with, I’m commanded to somehow love my neighbor. Instead of giving up or giving in, I’m compelled to persevere in the pursuit of justice, peace, and possibility for all.
Some days all of that is much easier said than done. On those days I hold on to the one thing I’m sure of even when nothing else feels certain: God is still with us… today, tomorrow, and forevermore.
That simple yet profound statement of faith is the blessed balm we all need for our souls. The world around us is chaotic, and so many things we thought we knew seem to be slipping from our grasp. But this central pillar of our faith holds firm: “…neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39).
Today I’m still feeling that tremor in my spirit that sense that all is not well with the soul of this nation. Yet God still is who God has always been. A God who created us to be partners in the creative, redemptive, sometimes agonizing work of discipleship. A God who goes to the greatest lengths to deliver and liberate God’s people. A God who grants healing in the most unexpected of places and ways. A God of Resurrection, who wrestles new, abundant life out of desperation and death. A God who works in God’s own time and way, and bids us to be faithful in every season. Even election season.
