From Chaos to Kingdom: Staying Faithful (and Sane) After Election Day

By: Nathaniel Winslow, Lay Elder, Nansemond River Baptist Church

As the curtain drops on another political rodeo, soon half the country will be chanting "Hallelujah" as if the Millennium has been ushered in. Meanwhile, the other half is stocking up on canned goods, convinced that doomsday clocks are about to strike midnight. If you’re feeling the tug of this emotional merry-go-round, hang on, because it’s time to disembark. There's an exodus to be made from this chaos—one that leads us not only to some calm but, more importantly, Kingdom-focused clarity.

From Tribalism to True Love

Political divisiveness has always fed our tendency toward tribal warfare, making us pounce at each other like feral cats over a scrap of ideological tuna. Indeed, “elections have consequences”—so said former President Obama, though that line has now become everyone’s favorite club for beating the “other side.” But here’s the problem: When everyone’s hacking away at each other with their partisan swords, who’s around to patch up the social fabric? It’s time for Christians to pick up the needle and thread, and that means applying a healthy dose of grace ointment, not a cheap “can’t we all just get along” balm to the burns we’ve suffered as the house divided burns around us. Jesus teaches us in the Beatitudes that “blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9), and “peacemaker” here doesn’t mean push-over. It means making a tangible difference where others want to continue torching the place.

If we, as Christ-followers, can’t transcend the sniping and tribal carnage, who will? Our love isn’t some bumper-sticker sentimentality. It’s grit. It’s real love—it’s that 1 Corinthians 13, love-your-enemies, take-the-log-out-of-your-own-eye love. Loving your neighbor and enemy alike is to embody the gospel and, Lord willing, offer an open door to the Kingdom itself. So, instead of plotting your next social media flamethrower moment, think about inviting the “enemy” over for coffee or tea, listening, and finding a way that you can both come away looking more like Christ. You might find that grace does more work than your best arguments.

From Anxiety to Supplication

Love for neighbor and enemy also includes that particularly inconvenient creature: your elected official. Moreover, we’re called to pray for the whole lot of them. Don’t roll your eyes—this is a matter of eternal seriousness. Before you take this last chance to fume all over again, recall the Bible tells us to fear God and honor the emperor (1 Peter 2:17), even when said emperor has a knack for driving us all nuts. The truth is, God has never relinquished His throne, and no election result has so much as nudged His sovereign plans (Daniel 2:21). Our job, dear saints, is to be in right standing with the law, and that doesn’t just mean paying taxes. It means praying, even giving thanks, for those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-3).

Now, why would God put such a tall order on us? Because prayer isn’t just our celestial 911 hotline. It’s our alignment tool. When we lift our voices to God, we submit our anxious hearts to His refining work, letting His Spirit soften our jagged edges. In praying for our leaders, even the ones who rile us, we’re more likely to trade in vitriol for mercy. And God, ever the brilliant strategist, uses that shift to conform us to the image of Christ Himself.

From Mind Fog to Mission

Having tuned our hearts (hopefully), let’s focus the mind. Our purpose was never to live or die by the success of some candidate or platform. Yes, we vote and engage as our consciences and the Spirit direct. However, we can’t make politics our holy grail. That’s a trapdoor straight into the abyss. We can’t build the Kingdom by just waving a flag, no matter how noble the cause may seem. Politics is not the mission; discipleship is! By putting our hope in human systems, we’re setting ourselves up for spiritual whiplash. Christ’s words in the Great Commission, “Go, therefore, and make disciples,” don’t come with a footnote about ignoring or alienating people with bad political ideas.

Our work, our real work, is eternal, and it’s unchanged by the chaos of election cycles. As long as Christ is on the throne (Matthew 28:18-20), our marching orders remain firm. So, snap out of the anxious election fever and hone in on the Kingdom mission, lest we miss the whole plot.

From This Dust to The Kingdom

Amidst all the sound and fury of political pageantry, remember that neither party can fill the deepest, truest desires of the human soul. Those desires find their anchor only in the One who, despite being rejected, has become the cornerstone of an unshakable Kingdom (Acts 4:11). One day, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Christ alone is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). That, my friends, is the reality that underpins our hope.

So, hold tight to that hope. Let the peace and grace of Jesus permeate your interactions, whether in victory or defeat. Let the truth of God’s Kingdom be a light in this temporary chaos, for it’s in that Kingdom, not our teetering nation, that our true citizenship lies.