Hatred of Trump is spiritual death #1. I must confess this sin, repent from it, and seek to love this enemy until he is an enemy no more.

Trump is just as I am. Strangely and wonderfully made. Created in God’s own image. Prone to going astray. Fallen well-short of the glory of God.

But it is false to say we are fully the same. I see fallen-ness in me. I feel further unseen fallen-ness in me. I seek God’s will. I seek to love my neighbor as a highest value. I do not surround myself with vapid, blood-thirsty people. I struggle with the same loneliness that engulfs Trump. But I deal with it through church: its traditions, practices and people all connect me and heal the disconnections within me. He deals with it dishonestly through the false comforts of wealth and power.

I am grateful for the church and its training. I feel a lot of the anxiety that the world is feeling. I’ve been feeling the worldwide helplessness over Aleppo. I’ve been feeling the animosity nationally over the President-Elect. I’ve been feeling the inevitability of an era of strife arriving during Christmas. The church gives me a framework by which to navigate these challenges. It teaches me to deal with logs in my own eyes. It teaches me to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. It gave me opportunity this week to hear from youth and homeless and Mormon missionaries and to remember the beauty of sacred music that arose out of a time of war.

I don’t have a plan yet for living in Trump’s America. But I feel a sense of companionship: that we have been here before, we do know the challenge and the solution. I know to prepare for violence. I know to prepare for perhaps having to go without things I currently take for granted. I know that my community has power regardless of what the government does. I know what my values are. I know what Truth is. I know what love is. I know how much I have been given and how much is required of me.

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,
exalted for you, or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.