Last Sunday I made light of how some fast food chains are blaming poor earnings on the 2016 presidential race, and the sense of impending doom Americans feel because of it.
After church, I took my family to our local Wendy’s for lunch because I wanted to do my part to help restore that part of the local economy.
As I prepared to teach a fine group of young men about the book of Job this week at church, I couldn’t help thinking about how many of these same lessons apply to all of us when we face hard times.
I know Americans are truly worried about our next few years.
Republicans are not excited that a woman whom they have had problems with for 25 years seems destined for the White House, according to recent polls. Clinton was on the naughty list for most GOP voters long before emails disappeared, national secrets were accidentally shared, and embassies were overrun in Libya.
Democrats are scared to death of what a Donald Trump comeback would mean. Building walls, banning immigrants due to religion, and fear of accidentally starting World War III by being “sarcastic” during a press conference are all equally logical reasons to be concerned.
Do you remember the fear people on the right side of the political spectrum had when Barack Obama was first elected in 2008? Our society was going to crash down around us. The economy will never come back from this recession. They thought the country was in big trouble.
Yet, here we are eight years later. Like most eight-year periods, regardless of who the president has been, there have been ups and downs. Unemployment is low, the stock market is high — life goes on.
It turns out that who the president is doesn’t really affect most of our lives that much on a daily basis.
I’m not saying it is unimportant, but in my adult life, I have lived through Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
There have been good times and bad, but they haven’t killed me yet.
One thing that reading the Book of Job will do for you is restore perspective. When you think you are having bad times, Job shows what bad times really are.
Have Chaldeans stolen all 6,000 of your camels?
Did a lightning storm kill your sheep herd and employees?
Have all of your children been killed in a violent windstorm?
Have horrible chronic diseases made every minute of your existence miserable?
Don’t even get me started about how his wife and friends treated him through all of this.
Even in times I would call bad, nothing that bad happened to me. Reading about Job makes your bad days seem good.
Job responded in such a good way despite all of these horrible things happening to him. He was a better man than I am.
One thing that stands out in the book is that Job never really worries about who the king is. The king wasn’t causing his problems, and the king wasn’t going to be able to help him solve them.
It matters who becomes president, and every person should vote his or her conscience in November. However, even if the other side wins, you don’t have to panic or become depressed.
Carter won, then Reagan, then the first Bush, then the first Clinton, then the second Bush, then Obama — all the while the world kept turning, and truly important things in your life mattered a lot more than anything these men did.
I guess my point is that as long as you are okay, everything will be okay.
But don’t just take my word for it. In my study about bad things happening that are outside of our control, I found a quote from St. Augustine. He had some thoughts on what our perspective should be regardless of what circumstances are currently having the biggest effect on our lives.
“Bad times, hard times — this is what people keep saying,” Augustine said. “But let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.”
Therefore, no matter what happens over the next few months and who wins the right to sign the nation’s checks, live well and your times will be better for it.
Contact Kent Bush, publisher of the Shawnee (Oklahoma) News-Star, at kent.bush@news-star.com.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: BUSH: A little perspective for unsettled times