Election Results, Growing Up, Remembering Who we Are (Liminal, Part Two)

I am particularly tired this week. My dear American readers, you can probably guess why. Election week is usually filled with heightened emotions, outright debate, and obsessive checking of the Associated Press electoral vote counter (no one else? Just me?). My students were more exhausted than usual this week, the energy on campus was low, and the assignments are piling up to new, uncharted heights.

All academic concerns aside, I think I’m more tired this week because I’m feeling the acuity of both the national divide and my own season of life changing drastically.

Let me elaborate.

I repeatedly noticed my liberal friends, the morning of the election results, repeated how they “just couldn’t believe it” and “didn’t understand how this could happen.” While I might empathize with their emotions, at the same time it highlighted for me just how divided the country is politically, with people on either side of the spectrum completely unable to see from the other’s point of view. By saying you don’t see how a certain result is even possible, you’re revealing the fact that you don’t have an inkling for how a certain politician's message might resonate with the majority of Americans. The loss of conversations, civility, and curiosity has been weighing on me, and so I look up at my pile of homework and sigh.

But more in line with my last blog on remembering, I’m also in a position where I’m staring down the road at graduation, and I can’t stop thinking about what my life is going to look like next. My two-year graduate program is coming to a close, and as this season of life is ending, I get the joy of discovering what’s next for me.

It doesn’t feel like a joy, though. At least, not yet.

I find myself pausing a lot lately. Whether I’m reflecting on difficult political moments, my own career, my classes, or my teaching, I am frequently trying to ground myself in where I’ve been so I can try to figure out where I’m going.

This is where I think remembrance can be so, so valuable. As a Christian, I’m not only pausing to reflect on what has happened in the past season, I’m also taking what I’ve learned and experienced into whatever God has for me next. This next season, both in my personal life and in the life of the country, is in God’s hands. I pray for health and success for both.

This is going to be a shorter blog. I offer all I have: hope for the future, and the knowledge that the only way forward is along the faithful path, following Jesus with my community. I’ve been so grateful for my time at PLNU, and though I still have many more months, I look forward to finding out what lies ahead on the path.

I hope that somewhere along the way, you may join me.