If there’s anything that undermines my peace and threatens our hope as a local and national community, it’s election season.  Nothing can cause angst like being bombarded by media reminding you that this is “the most important election of our lives.” I am now old enough to remember the same media reminding us that at least the past three or four national election cycles have been “the most important of our lives.” It begs the question: if they’re all the most important, are any more important than others?

It’s pretty hard not to become anxious, to resist the urge not to think of our candidate (whoever “we” are) as the only logical choice, and that the other guy or gal is maybe not the Antichrist but could be that guy’s or gal’s close cousin. That’s how extreme our world is; this is the rhetoric we’re pummeled with by media, social, and otherwise. Who wouldn’t get a little nervous and be tempted to lose hope if you actually believed that this election was an existential crisis and that the future of your country, if not Western civilization as we know it, hangs in the balance of your vote? I wouldn’t even want to drive to the polling place downtown and try to find a parking place with that much pressure on me! But that’s what we’re led to believe. 

As we sit here on the eve of yet another contentious election in our peace-killing, scrappy little culture, let’s take a moment to encourage each other and remind ourselves of what’s real and true. After all, amid “fake news” and epistemic uncertainty, we are a people of truth, serving the God who is the truth. In a land of existential dread, we are a people of hope, serving a God of hope. And, as Jesus stepped away from the madding crowds to be with his Father and drink from the wellspring of truth, so he could return to the crowds to love and serve as a man of peace, we need to do the same constantly. If it was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for us, right? 

David Arnott, a professor of management at Dallas Baptist University, shed some light on why people tend toward anxiety and hopelessness. Dr. Arnott noted what he calls the “negativity bias,” the inherent human tendency to believe that whatever times we live in are the worst times ever in human history. While negativity bias rules even today, Arnott notes the statistics don’t bear out such pessimism:

• Over the past two generations, deaths due to war are down 95 percent.
• Extreme poverty is down 80 percent; income inequality is down 10 percent; real per capita income is up 40 percent.
• The number of famine victims has fallen from more than twenty million in the 1870s to 255,000 today.
• Half of the world is now middle class or wealthier.
• The global maternal mortality ratio has been cut in half since 1990.
• Natural resources are more abundant and affordable than ever in history.

There are several reasons for our negativity bias. First, we live in a broken, fallen world, and our natural minds tend toward fear whenever we live. Anger and anxiety are just the outworkings of our fear. Secondly, maybe because our human minds are naturally inclined in that direction, negativity sells. Media is designed to feed our natural inclination because the algorithms that feed us media are designed to give us bad news exactly how we want it.  

In the oft-quoted Desiring the Kingdom, philosopher James K. Smith notes that we are not primarily thinkers and doers, but lovers. And, Smith says, we are what we love. What we spend time on, invest our money in, and think about are what we love. Smith says our affections and our loves are shaped by what he (and the church through the ages, by the way) calls liturgies—repetitive practices that, when engaged in over and over again, shape our hearts and incline our affections a certain way, which ultimately mold our behaviors. 

Now, think about that in the context of media. Day after day, hour after hour, being fed an echo chamber of things we already think we believe, a constant reinforcement of negativity, things that may or may not be objectively true. We are liturgized; our hearts are shaped and molded. And, before we know it, we’ve become different people. 

These liturgies, masquerading through various media, are just tools the devil uses because he’s the enemy of our souls and the killer of our joy and hope—not people, political parties, pundits, or positions. In John 8, Christ tells us that Satan is our father when we are dead in sin, and “when he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Satan is going to attack us every way he knows how, especially Christian educators and parents, those charged with preparing Christ’s church for the next generation, in ways that are specific to us: our unique pride, our insecurities, our faulty ways of looking at life pre-disposed through the individual brokenness of our families of origin, or past sin, or past hurts. 

But we have a new Father, redeemed by the blood of Christ as we are. Our new Father is the God of Truth, and Truth is defined by God’s character and his being. As God’s people, we are his bringers of Truth, and the hope that comes with that truth. One of my all-time favorite quotes comes from The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, in which historian Carl Trueman encourages Christians, as bringers of truth and hope, to reframe our natural negativity bias: 

“it is truly very hard for any competent historian to be nostalgic. What past times were better than the present? An era before antibiotics when childbirth or even minor cuts might lead to septicemia and death? The great days of the 19th century when the church was culturally powerful and marriage was between one man and one woman for life, but little children worked in factories and swept chimneys? Perhaps the Great Depression? The Second World War? The Vietnam Era? Every age has had its darkness and its dangers. The task of the Christian is not to whine about the moment in which he or she lives, but to understand its problems and respond appropriately to them.” 

As parents and educators, our task is to train the young followers of Jesus who God has given us to do the same. 

That’s why we must stand firm in the truth and hope of the Lord and his Word. Maybe we need to focus less on quoting media and studies and podcasts and celebrities and more on finding truth and hope in the source of it all: the Word of God. 

These threats are not unique or novel to our era; we struggle as God’s people have struggled for eons. Satan has been throwing these things at Christ’s church to distract them from its mission throughout its existence. The Corinthian church was seriously confused and anxious, as well. In a large, wealthy, cosmopolitan city, it had let the insanity of the world, and the enemy working through it, take it seriously off course. Paul would call that anxious city to truth and hope. 

First, Paul lays a groundwork of truth to ground the Corinthians in a culture of groundlessness: 

I would remind you, brothers of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,  and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you...for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,  and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8  Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (I Cor. 15). 

Paul reminded them of the gospel, of the Truth: who Jesus is and how He fulfilled the Scriptures and appeared to them. 

Paul also reminds them that they have hope, that despite their present circumstances they would be given an imperishable resurrection body, and live in a New Jerusalem without pain or sorrow, forever. Because of this truth and hope, they should stand firm in what they had been given: Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (I Cor. 15:58)

Paul’s encouragement rings true through the ages to our culture, as well.  Being steadfast, or “standing firm,” doesn’t mean subscribing to our own pet theories, or desperately seeking truth from some celebrity (whether political, podcaster, or other “influencer”). It doesn’t mean being stubborn, arrogant, unyielding, or insisting on our own way; it doesn’t mean cutting,  biting, or blasting, like the guy standing on the corner with the bullhorn and the sandwich board. “Stand Firm,” as I Corinthians 15:58 indicates, means persevering in being firmly rooted in God’s Word, doing the Word, rather than simply talking about it, and trusting that our work will yield God’s perfect result over time, for his glory and our good. 

If, by now, you haven’t read Dominion by Tom Holland, you simply must. In it, Holland sets forth the entire history of Christianity, from 145 B.C. in the Greco-Roman era to 2015. What’s clear from his account is that, no matter how dire the surrounding circumstances or how faithful or unfaithful God’s people were at any given era throughout history, God has relentlessly done his work, accomplishing his goals and building his Church and his Kingdom throughout the ages. He doesn’t need us to do so; he’s God. But, He loves us and wants us with him, and wants to teach us through it all, like a loving Father taking his child to work. I pray this year, and especially in the midst and wake of this election season, our Christian school community will stand firm in the truth and hope of the Lord, be bringers of Light to the world around us, people of calm spirits and peaceful hearts, and filled with the shalom that comes with pressing into him. 

Dr. Jay W. Ferguson, Jr.
Head of School, Grace Christian School, Tyler, TX

Jay Ferguson is the Head of School of Grace Community School in Tyler. Grace Community School is the largest private school in East Texas, serving 1400 students on three campuses from infancy through 12th grade. Jay was a practicing attorney in Dallas and Tyler for ten years before joining Grace Community School in 2002 as its Director of Development. He assumed the full-time Head of School role in fall 2003.

Jay has written extensively on Christian education and related issues. He has contributed to Building a Better School, published by Paideia Press, Mindshift: Catalyzing Change in Christian Education, published by Purposeful Design, and Religious Liberty and Education, published by Rowman and Littlefield. He is a regular contributor to Christian School Education and the ACSI and CESA blogs, and writes his own weekly blog. He is an adjunct professor of school law and governance at Covenant College in Georgia, and at Baylor University. He serves on the faculty of the Van Lunen Center at Calvin College, and he has served on the adjunct faculties of Gordon College in Massachusetts, and at Peabody College at Vanderbilt University.

Jay is the Past President of the Texas Private School Association, the Past Chair of the Council on Educational Standards and Accountability, and is the Current Chair of the Association of Christian Schools International. Jay holds a Bachelors’ Degree from Baylor University, a Juris Doctor from Texas Tech University School of Law, and a Masters’ Degree in Educational Leadership from Covenant College. He earned his PhD in Leadership Studies at Dallas Baptist University.