Today, the United States had its 60th Presidential Inauguration, formally beginning the term of the 47th President, Donald Trump. With his swearing in, President Joe Biden’s time in office comes to a close. Inauguration Day is always a busy one for the new President. There are ready-made bills standing by for him to sign, parades and balls to attend, and more phone calls to take than most of us will have all year long (who even uses our phones as phones anymore?). As for the outgoing President, there are final calls to be made to world leaders, final pardons to grant, final executive orders to enact, and final personal artifacts to be removed from the White House that had been his home for the past four years. It’s a busy busy day for all.
When was the last time a President (incoming or outgoing) stopped in the middle of the chaos of Inauguration Day, removed himself to a quiet place, and whispered a prayer to the Almighty who put him in an office of such weighty responsibility? I can’t say, but I don’t think it’s unlikely that many of our modern commanders in chief simply let such a seemingly “small” thing pass them by.
Regardless, I’ll be uttering one for them, whether they join me or not.
I’ll be asking the Father to bless the outgoing President with a quiet life in retirement, away from the pressures that weighed him down for the past four years, to enjoy his time with his family now that his half-century in politics has come to a close, to refocus his life away from the magnitude of the Executive office and toward smaller, more personal, calmer aspirations and agendas. I will pray for his health and safety, and for the kind of quiet life that was simply impossible to enjoy over the past many years.
Likewise, I’ll be asking the Father to bless the incoming President with humility, steely resolve, sharp instincts, and an appreciation for his own fallibility. I will ask God to keep dangerous voices from whispering in his ear, to keep dangerous agendas from reaching his desk, and to keep dangerous ideas from filling his mind. I will ask the Lord to use this man as His instrument, both to bless and to curse the nations as He sees fit (including this one),
I will also ask the Father to be patient and pitiable with America, to remember that we are a young nation, deeply divided in many important areas, and at times seemingly ready to tear ourselves apart. I would ask God to help His church here to remind our neighbors what the love of Jesus looks like, to show the Better Way to our national brethren, and to demonstrate the kind of contentment that comes with trusting in God to lead you, and worrying less about who occupies a white house on Pennsylvania Ave.
The United States is a remarkable nation, built on the ideal that the people decide the direction of their land, rather than a monarch or an all-powerful “state.” We the people elect someone to represent us, while retaining our sole-sovereignty over our own destinies, rather than ceding it to another. And yet, as Christians, we cede our lives to the hands of God, and we yield to His sovereignty.
Today, bands all over DC will be playing “Hail to the Chief” almost on loop.
In the hearts of believers, we’ll be singing a different tune:
Great is Thy faithfulness; morning by morning, new mercies I see
All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided; great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me
~Matthew