Our Opportunity to Change America

This week, we have an opportunity to change the direction of America. And it’s not on November 5th. It’s on November 6th.

Once all the voting is done, each of us has a decision to make. We must decide just how we respond to the outcome of the upcoming presidential election.

Half of us will be disappointed with the results. Half of us will be pleased. Will the “winners” gloat and taunt the “losers”? Will the “losers” refuse to let go and hold bitterness towards the “winners”? Will I? Will you?

Who we show up as on November 6th is not up to our political party or our community or our neighbors or our friends or even our families. When we wake up on the morning of November 6th, we have the opportunity to emerge from behind our flags and banners and signs and show the world exactly who we are. It’s a decision that each of us has both the privilege and the responsibility to make on November 6th, and what we decide will set the direction for our nation.

The truth is that there IS an enemy within that must be confronted. And as unsettling as it is to admit, the enemy is not “those people over there”. The enemy is within ourselves. The enemy is that temptation we all have, big or small, to gloat and taunt and to hold bitterness and hatred towards our ideological rivals, our leaders, and our neighbors. It’s that temptation that is the real enemy within, and one that we must fight. And if we don’t fight it, both we and our country will be the big loser.

So, between now and November 6th, we can fight that enemy within by answering for ourselves this question, “How will I show up on November 6th?” The true answer can’t come from our favorite candidate or any news channel. And it can’t come from our pastor or our barber or even from our own heads. The truth can only come from our hearts.

I believe that every one of us can change the direction of America if we all simply listen to our hearts, and nothing else, and live our lives accordingly. And if we do, it will be good for us all.