Guest Post: "Not My President"

After a very intense and bitter election, Anti-Trump demonstrators vandalized buildings, kicked cars, and knocked out power in cities across America.  And more protests are planned over the next few days.  Although the pundits and the polls overwhelmingly projected an easy win for Hillary Clinton, she lost.  Even last minute voters who walked into the voting booth not knowing who they would vote for ended up voting for Trump.

Okay, I understand being shocked and disappointed that your candidate lost when her election seemed so certain; I get that.  As did Hillary, go home, have a good cry, and get it out of your system.  Donald Trump was elected fair and square, and he will be our next President.  However, against the urgings of Hillary and even of President Obama to transition peacefully, the protests and burnings continue.  Why all the outrage and discontent?

Maybe it’s because God intervened in our election.  Not that Donald Trump is a good man or that he deserved to win, but that God sovereignly gave him the victory.  Obviously and unexpectedly, God steered the election to His own desired outcome.

A relative of mine (after posting a whole stream of explicatives) asked, “How could God let this happen?”  How dare He interfere?  How could He cast the deciding vote when He’s not even registered?  By what right does God overrule my personal choice without my permission?  After all, it’s my body, my life, my future.  What authority does He have to meddle in my affairs?

As believers, we are used to submitting to God’s will; when we become willful and stubborn, God disciplines us and brings us back to humility and obedience.  In contrast, those who don’t know God don’t enjoy such correction.  All they can do is rage against the machine.  Things didn’t go their way and someone has to pay.

Unfortunately, we still live in His universe.

As Pastor Briscoe reminds us, “God is God all by Himself.”  God was not elected; He acts of His own accord, He takes counsel from no one.  He removes kings and sets up kings.  How revolting this is to those who so keenly want to do their own thing and live their own way.  Unlike human leaders, however, God is not intimidated by the anger and protests of men.  When the nations rage and the peoples plot against Him, it’s all for naught.  God laughs, and then installs the King of His choice.

The sooner we realize this and submit to His good and perfect will, the better.

John Harris lives with his wife Tita in Southern Maryland, where he works as an engineer and serves in his local church. He is also my father.