When Tuesday is over, and we may not know the results of the election for days or weeks, we must find a way to begin to come together as a country.  Many of us, certainly including myself, have passionately expressed our view of the presidential race and the state of our state and nation.  I am unquestionably supporting President Trump.  However, if he loses in a free and fair election, I am not moving to another country as many of the entitled movie and media stars always threaten to do (but then never do).  I am going to remain here in Shreveport and keep fighting for positive developments in our city, state, and country. I’ll never leave America.

Even so, that won’t ever be enough.  As individuals, we are limited in our ability to make progress based upon our own power.  We must also seek the protection and blessing of Almighty God to fix our problems and heal our ills.  It can only be done by the hand of God.  Jefferson wrote powerfully and eloquently in the Declaration of Independence of “… the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” making clear that we not only possess an intrinsic and eternal value because we are made in the image and likeness of God but that we also seek Him because we cannot accomplish anything of significance without Him.

When I reflect on the crucial need for our nation to be united, I can do no better than to turn to President Lincoln and a speech he made in 1861 on the eve of the Civil War—an equally difficult and tumultuous time in America:

“We are not enemies, but friends.  We must not be enemies.  Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.  The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

It’s true for us as well that “passion may have strained” our “bonds of affection” but we cannot allow it to break them.  America cannot work—our Constitution cannot work—if America becomes permanently divided.  This is a difficult time, but America has been through many difficult times before. We will persevere through it because of the American spirit and because of the “better angels of our nature.”  And with our prayers and contrition, God will do the rest.