Winners and Grinners

PROTECTED CONTENT

If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.

Lost your password?

Username and Password Help

Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.

← Back

By Carolyn L. Primm

 Emotions have been high following the announcement of the potential results of the Presidential election.   As is always true, some people are thrilled with the president-elect. These folks expect great things in the next four years. Others are not so thrilled.  As Andy Griffith tells his son, Opie, after Opie loses the 50-yard dash, “Now, when you win that ain’t going to be any problem to you, is it? No. See we all know how to win. We grin a lot, don’t we? Grin, and grin and grin. But when you lose, see, that’s the hard part. That’s when you have to take yourself in hand, show it ain’t gettin’ you down and that you’re a good sport about it, and that you’re going to try again. And when you do that, you’ll be on the road to becoming a mature human being.”  This article isn’t so much for the winners and grinners as it is for those struggling to be mature human beings.

 Part of becoming a mature human being is to accept, if not celebrate, that the United States of America is a democracy.  A democracy is a system of government in which supreme rule is in the power of the people.  Every eligible adult in a democracy can vote their convictions and can choose who they desire to represent them.  In a democracy, we the people decide what we get.  No election ends with everyone grinning, but, if our system works correctly, we elect the president that the majority of people in the United States want.

 We the people, however, rarely seem very certain of what we want.  The office of president has volleyed back and forth between the Republican and the Democratic parties and their differing agendas with remarkable consistency. Only once since 1950, has either party held the presidency for three consecutive terms. That was between 1981 and 1992, when George Bush’s presidency followed Ronald Reagan’s two terms. It would appear that in eight years, or less, we the people decide that what we thought we wanted wasn’t really what we did want.  Our grins fade. 

 We expect a president or party policy to do what only God can do. Throughout history, mankind has consistently sought a human leader who could reverse mankind’s ill-fated decisions. A mature human being should realize that no human, nor any political party can fulfill that desire.  No human being even knows what is best for mankind, let alone knows how to save us from ourselves.  Thankfully, we have a God who does know what is best for mankind and who is fully capable of saving us from ourselves.  

His power, presence, and purpose are not deterred by any party or any president. Nor will it ever be.  In fact, God’s presence and provisions are often most obvious in times that appear to the human mind as those of greatest adversity and uncertainty.  For it is in those times that we recognize our need for God, and it is in those times that we seek God’s direction. I am not sure how this election will end.  But, I do know that I will be grinning, because as a semi- mature human being, I am trusting God rather than man to save me.