So, no big news since I last wrote, right? (Just kidding)
If I am speaking honestly, when I found out that Trump was elected, I was furious beyond belief, and my poor roommate got quite the earful (though it gave us a break from talking about Brexit for a bit, which was good). I could not believe that what I had perceived to be the impossible had happened in him taking office! For me, character is such an important issue in choice for a leader, and for me to have someone of poor public character represent me as an American expat is a hard thing to accept. And this being my first election away from home, it is hard (and continues to be hard) for me to be away while things change drastically in my passport country.
One thing that really shook me was Trump’s decision to make refugee entrance into the US more difficult. I understand why he did it at a head level, but at a heart level I am mad (I should also note that I work with a people group who has been temporarily banned from entering my passport company under refugee status, so these emotions are a bit fresh for me). This prejudice makes me angry, and I have been blinded by that anger. I have been angry because prejudice in any form really pisses me off, but I am learning as my blinders come off that anger can’t turn me away from Jesus’s compassion for all people. God desires both victims AND oppressors to love, see clearly, and follow Him, and sometimes my eyes can’t see beyond my own anger to love an oppressor just as much as a victim. May God forgive me, but I continuously need His eyes to see this situation as He does.
As I have been praying for softness of heart and spirit (or praying for the grace and desire to pray for a soft heart) in relationship to politics, my mind keeps coming back to God’s sovereignty. I know that God is in control (as I have been repeating to myself frequently), and that is present all over Scripture- God is a rock, a refuge, a shelter, and a small voice that cuts through all of the noise of life. I see the president make decisions that I don’t agree with, say things that I don’t agree with, and move us as a country away from showing compassion to refugee groups that God has overwhelmed me with love for over and over again But God is bigger than all of those things! I find myself at peace because I am a lover of Jesus that also happens to be an American, not the other way around. My political identity is tethered to who I am in Christ, but it does not define it. As I pray for my passport country, I see God putting dark topics, thoughts, and ideas into the light, and he is reclaiming American identity through this. He will empower us to move towards him as a nation, but first groundwork must be laid for us to get there.
So all this to say, God is moving me to have hope for my own country. God is bigger than any man and any office here, and he will do what he wills with us, through whatever circumstances, because God loves his people and chases after them with a desperate love. My friend R, a refugee woman, told me that change is a good thing- even if Trump is a hardened and head-strong man, God works through change, and I truly believe that. Even in the midst of my fear for my friends, I am at a place now where I am 100% confident that God is control of what will happen in my country. Thanks be to God for that.