Cycles. There are a lot of cycles in life. Being married I’ve come to appreciate just how significant period cycles are for women. Janel has written about our fertility journey several times to raise awareness to the reality many couples and women face in difficulty doing what some assume to be “easy”. During infertility treatments you become tied to the monthly cycle. Having sex on just the right day or having to provide samples for tests — hoping that come that time of the month no blood will flow. 

Certainly there are other cycles we follow, every year there are a number of holidays we observe without fail. Even in a pandemic we decorated and handed out candy for Halloween (which isn’t a holiday but certainly is a cycle). Daylight savings is a cycle of changing time, mornings are brighter now and the Sun sets much much earlier. The Earth does a cycle around the Sun, every day the moon does a cycle around the Earth. And we wake up each morning to a new cycle of work and responsibilities. 

This morning I’ve not gotten the news open yet. I finished my morning prayers and sat down to write this slightly briefer blog post before turning on the news to see if anything more is decided regarding the election cycle we “supposedly” just wrapped up. My sense leading up to last night was that we live more in a perpetual state of campaigning by political groups. The first election I remember watching the results get tallied was in 2000. I have vivid memories of the chaos and emotional rollercoaster of the recounts and the aftermath of lawsuits. During the election of President Obama both times I felt surer that the process wasn’t so chaotic, yet still the seeds of discontent about the finality of election night had been shaken in my psyche. 

This year however, with all the anticipated uncertainty due to early voting, slow counting, Covid-19, and massive voter turn out — I am more at peace and calm. I will listen to arguments and debates regarding the due process and possible need to make sure votes are counted correctly — but this year my trust is not in the system but Jesus. This year no matter the result or the controversy over it I have chosen to interrupt my usual cycle of discontent and frustration. 

My daughter is slightly older than I was when Bill Clinton was first elected president. I have a few memories of seeing President Clinton’s face on CNN when I was four and five. Whoever becomes president for this cycle will the one Ashlynn sees on tv and hears about first. And as she observed her mom and dad watching the polls close last night before her bed time I was reminded of just how thankful I am for children. I am specifically thankful for our daughter and for our second daughter to be born in February. I am truly grateful for the perspective kids bring to my life — because when Ashlynn is 30 years old the results of the 2020 election will be the like the results of the many elections before — a cycle. Each generation must face their time and do what they can to make the world better. You cast your vote and live your life but the reality is the future belongs to the next cycle of humans. 

Today as I read a very interesting love poem about the king of Israel, psalm 45, and the Beatitudes again as my gospel reading I was reminded just how important human leaders are in the way we operate as the human race. Right off the bat in the Bible we are introduced to these “Patriarchs” (Fathers, who were the leaders of the tribe and family). In the book of Judges we get introduced to some female leaders God raised up to save the people. Judges is a fantastically crazy book in the Bible, there’s some pretty gnarly stories and lots of blood and gore. What I find most fascinating is the cycles presented. “Again they did whatever was right in their own eyes…” or in other words they sinned, then they were conquered by some other nation, after a season they repent and cry out to God, God hears, and sends a savior (or leader). But sometimes the leader who rescued them or delivered them was also the one to lead them astray into their next cycle of sin. 

Perhaps this election season you’ve felt that if Biden wins the election we’ll be delivered from our cycle of oppression from Trump — or perhaps you believe that if Trump wins we’ll be delivered from the demise of America — but what Judges teaches us is that the very human leader who delivers can also be the one who leads us into sin. Each cycle is an invitation to trust God again, to turn away from our sin. What we ought to teach our children and what I hope to pass on to Ashlynn and Sloane is an ability to see the good a president can bring but also acknowledge and be aware of the sin they can also lead us toward. 

So whether former Vice President Biden or President Trump are the human leader raised up for us in this new cycle, I trust God to speak and deliver us through their leadership. But I also remain cautious and wary of the sin I may be drawn towards because of who is in the White House. 

Today, with uncertainty about the immediate future I enter in with confidence and hope — with gratitude for my children. I am thankful for Ashlynn’s curiosity, for Sloane’s continued growth, for the home we have for them to grow up in. For the family who will shape their character, and for the love in my heart for them. Today I am thankful for the cycle of having children.