For the Next Few Weeks, We Have a Choice to Make

How Will We Act, Think And Feel If “Our Person” Loses—Especially If We Feel The Result Is Unfair In Some Way?

We need to think ahead of time about how we are going to handle ourselves if “our person” loses, especially if we think there was unfairness involved, and what we are going to model for our kids, our friends, our community. Because with so many races running so close, we would be foolish to not decide that now.

As Mary Renault put it in The Charioteer, “There is only one kind of shock worse than the totally unexpected: the expected for which one has refused to prepare.”

This isn’t just about the presidential race, but about any race we care about. One of my closest friends is running for our State House of Representatives, and her opponent has played every underhanded, dirty trick in the book. I can find my blood pressure rising at the thought that my dear friend—who would be so good in that role—might lose because her opponent sent out volunteers to steal all her yard signs and harass her via dozens of false reports to election officials.

Politics can be a dirty business . . . and we need to decide ahead of time that we won’t be. In fact, that we will be the opposite. The “Golden Rule” that we teach to our kids, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” as actually stated by Jesus, is about exactly this situation. In context (see Luke 6:27-31), He is essentially saying, “I want you to treat the people who are being cruel and underhanded with you, in the kind and grace-filled way that you wish they were treating you.”