Hello dear friends.

I am holding in myself a number of things in tension today:

On the one hand, everywhere I have walked in the last 24 hours, I get stopped by folks who ask if I have cast my vote. Most of them have been young and/or minorities. I felt encouraged like this nation is more aware and ripe for change than it has ever been, despite the leader of its executive branch. In fact, this is the first election of my life that I have ever invested myself in and I'm confident it won't be the last. I am hoping that is how every new voter feels today; fueled by this outcome whether good or bad to be engaged.

On the other hand, I come to my workplace that I respect so much with people who have fought for different outcomes not just in this election but some even for decades before it, and it is a grim picture. These people are my heroes and so many of them are heavy and grieving and so tired and so defeated.

As a newcomer to the political/advocacy world, I just wanted to somehow wrap my arms around them and take their burdens for a while. I still have the grace (and idealism) of being able to see silver linings. Don't hate me liberal/Christian friends, but I do genuinely think God's will had a part in this somehow. I don't think He is pleased with Bush or Kerry. In fact I believe God cares more about the poor than about Bush's'moral values'. He grieves for 100,000 people dead in Iraq and the destruction of our natural world given to us to care for and poverty rates rising in the most wealthy nation in the world. Yet I know God also promised us earthly defeats. He warned us it might be this way. Our victory is rarely going to happen in things on earth like politics.

Yet (and this is a part of the tension), He does tell us that those who hunger and thrist for righteousness and justice will be filled. How can this be? How can we find peace amidst the triumph of the greedy and deceitful in the world and yet still maintain a spirit of fire that never stops trying to make it better? I don't really get it. But I recognize that it is a grace to me today that I am not despairing. So I am hoping the same for you as well.

I do have more practical things I want to say about my ideas and where our group at Sojourners is going from here because some of our plans are exciting. But I want to go call some of you. All I'll say is that, as always, we have a lot of work to do don't we? So I would suggest that we all keep learning how to rest so that we can go better about our work.

love you guys.

"Send out your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will get it back" (Ecclesiastes 11:1)