Words of Encouragement
from the Choir Room by Alex Gandlmayr
November 8, 2020
Alex
I write this column on the eve of the most contentious election in modern US history. It bears no repeating that this has been a year fraught with challenges for our nation and the anxiety of this night is palpable. What’s more, the airwaves have been inundated by pundits presuming it may take days (or weeks) to determine a winner due to the prevalence of mail-in voting. This particularly brutal election cycle has highlighted the growing political divide within our democracy. At the time of this column’s publishing, no matter the outcome of the election, approximately half of the country will feel disheartened and fearful about the trajectory of our nation.

The rising political tensions leading up to this election have led me to seek wisdom from great leaders of the past. Although our current climate may seem extreme, it pales in comparison to the hostility during the Civil War, when countrymen and brothers took up arms against each other. In 1863, President Lincoln issued a proclamation appointing a national day of fasting and prayer. It is a short proclamation and worth a read in its entirety, but one excerpt stuck in my mind:

..........We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us ..........in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly ..........imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced ..........by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken ..........success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and ..........preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! 
..........– Abraham Lincoln

I find this theme echoed in next Sunday’s anthem by Maurice Greene, Lord, let me know mine end

..........For man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain;
..........he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them. (Psalm 39:7)
 
Throughout the course of this election, I have preoccupied myself with the news of the day and at times caused myself heartache over events completely out of my control. Like many, I have experienced concern, anger, and sadness for the state of our country and have felt helpless in effecting change. But more recently, through prayer and reflection, I have found comfort in knowing that such worldly matters, while important, are far surpassed by the calling of our true citizenship.

..........“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, ..........the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20)

Alex Gandlmayr
Alto in the CSMSG Choir

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