A New Day

Last night, as the news reports showed that Barack Obama had won the bid for the Presidency, at the request of a neighboring pastor, I put one hand on the man next to me and the other hand on the woman in front of me, and I bowed my head and I cried with a profound relief that change has come to America. We prayed for courage and unity and for God's continued protection of our president-elect. A few moments after our prayer, the television silenced us all with John McCain's concession speech, during which the young man to my right, a man who has been living in Indiana working on the Obama campaign, broke open. He buried his face in his arms and let the hope, sleeplessness, dedication, relief, and joy engulf him in sobs that shook his body and, for me, epitomized in that moment how much work young people did for this election.

So this morning I woke up as my children ran in to our room and asked us who had won. Who is our next president? They are 5 and 8 and they don't comprehend the full magnitude of this country's election of an African American man, who is also quite young, but all I can think of is this: it will be very special for their liberal parents to watch them grow up alongside these particular first daughters.

And so I am...full of hope, kind of tired, proud of everybody from my congregation who worked on our electoral process, and just so happy to be alive in this period of history, even with the challenges we face.