This is for everyone horrified this morning.

This was published the morning after Donald Trump was elected to his first term.

We are half a nation. We may be the slightly smaller half – at this point the vote is even. (The popular vote, that is.)

You do not have to scroll through your Facebook feed wondering if you are alone, if you are crazy.

You are neither.

The reality is that in our country, a person can win an election this way. By a tiny amount. In the electoral college. And still win.

It doesn’t mean we have to lose hope for our country.

In fact, it means we don’t dare lose hope for our country.

History was made last night, but history isn’t over.

Our whole country needs us. And if we believe in God – if we are disciples of Jesus – then we are especially needed.

As a disciple of Jesus, I believe with all my heart that I am called to put God first and love my neighbor as myself.

I believe my gay, Muslim, Jewish, Syrian, African-American, Mexican (and so on!) neighbors are children of God.

I believe my fellow citizens who voted the Republican ticket are children of God.

I believe I am called to resist the devaluation of human souls. I believe in equal rights under the law for all.

I fear the judgment of God on a nation which does not follow the Bible’s commands to welcome the stranger (Matthew 25), love the foreign-born alien (Deuteronomy 10), and care for the needy and vulnerable (basically the whole Bible).

I fear the judgment of God on a nation which forgets that the earth is the Lord’s (Psalm 24) and despoils it not only in this day but for generations to come.

But I have been baptized into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. So I draw on the Holy Spirit, God’s very Being, for hope. I trust that in the long run God will right every wrong. And I focus on what God would have me do, day by day.

Today I will tell my children that history has its wrinkles, but God triumphs in the end. I will send them into the world to be disciples of Jesus Christ today just as they were yesterday and I pray they will be tomorrow.

Disciples of Jesus Christ know something about betrayal, sin, and brokenness.

Disciples of Jesus Christ know that none of these are the last word.

My prayer today, and for the years to come (not just four, because the consequences of this presidency will last much longer than four years), is simply that God would show me the path to take as a disciple of Jesus to live up to these words:

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

I am going to love my whole country. I am going to love my neighbors with whom I profoundly disagree, whose votes I believe have cast the shadow of (self-)destruction over our nation and this fragile earth, our island home.

I am going to be honest, because that is what love does. I am going to resist any attempt to use the law to harm and disrespect the children of God, because that is what love does. I am going to make sacrifices, because that is what love does.

I am going to remember that we are called to be one country together, all of us made in God’s image on God’s earth.

I am going to get up every day and do one small thing to live my faith, no matter what wrinkles history may bring. I will watch and wait for the day of the Lord, when the nations will feast with one another in peace.

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. (Isaiah 25)

I am horrified this morning. But no matter how I feel, I am going to worship God and love my neighbor.

Donald Trump may be my president-elect, but he does not rule my soul. My soul belongs to Jesus Christ in life and in death, no matter what horrors may come.