Congratulations to Obama

Barack Obama will be the new POTUS. My emotions are somewhat mixed on this.

• I am thrilled that so many Americans got out and voted, and that so many younger people voted.
• I am saddened that the Bushatred is so strong that so many people would use such messianic language about a new president.
• I am saddened that whatever good will the Bush administration had following 9/11 has been misspent.
  
• I am saddened that a good man like John McCain has apparently lost, though his campaign was puzzling from the start. If John McCain is the best the GOP can come up with, let the Dems rule for a while.
• I am wondering why Obama supporters seem to be treating this election as some sort of Super Bowl/World Series/World Cup/Stanley Cup all in one.
• I am wondering who the national press is going to turn on now, now that their man is on his way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
• I am disappointed that so many conservatives have demonized Obama, and been guilty of fear mongering, the exact thing the Left has been doing in relation to Bush for eight years. This sort of political "dialogue" is hazardous to the soul.
• I am saddened that the American people are handing the reins to someone whose major accomplishments (aside from running a spectacularly successful campaign) are so paper-thin, and whose ideas are so vague, and whose depth of experience is so shallow.
• I am proud to live in a country where there will be an orderly transition to power.
• I am proud to live in such a backwards and racist country that an African American man was overwhelmingly elected to the highest office in the land. Yup, certainly a land full of redneck brownshirts.
• I am profoundly disappointed in my Christian friends who are saying, "Now we have hope." Isn't hope a theological word? And isn't hope grounded in who God is? When they say it is not about the election results, what is it about then? Why is there hope on Wednesday where there was no hope on Tuesday? Our hope is, and always has been, and always will be, in the Lord.
  
• Still, I remain hopeful that as a country, we will work together for a better future.
• Words matter, and I will pray that the soaring rhetoric of Obama is matched by actions that help bring some of that to fruition.
• I am hopeful that the apocalyptic warnings of some religious conservatives will not come to pass.
• I am hopeful that some of the snarky bittermans who have "hated" America will now find themselves positive patriots, though snark tends to poison the soul to beauty truth and goodness, I am afraid.
  
• I am hoping that the church can catch a clue from the Obama campaign, that stories and aspirational thinking inspires people more than fear. (Remember Monsters, Inc.!)
  

When I wake up tomorrow and the polls say Obama is the next POTUS elect, I will make every effort to pray for him, that he would be wise beyond his experience, that he would, like that other senator from Illinois 150 years ago, listen to those who disagree with him. I will pray that he be more like Lincoln in reconstruction than the carpet-baggers, as power has a tendency to corrupt. I will pray for his vision to include all people, and that justice will prevail. I will pray for his resistance to the cronyism so rampant in Washington DC on BOTH sides of the aisle. I will pray that he has ears to hear from the Lord.

I will not move to Canada. I will not print petty vitriolic stuff about the president. I hope not to have the childish reactions of those whose candidate "lost" the last two elections, and cried for blood from day one.

He will be, after all, my president. And whether I agree or disagree, I am loyal to those that lead this great country. His success will the our success. May God bless Barack Obama and his family, and this country.