I was reminded this past week of the need for the nation to transcend partisan politics and remember who we are and what we should be about as citizens of the United States of America. I was reflecting back to the bitter, divisive and hard-fought election of 2016. As an exhausted nation stepped into an unexpected and uncertain future with the election President Donald Trump, I found hope in the promise of community and the power of prayers for the nation.
I woke up exhausted that Saturday after the 2016 election. I was spent and just wanted to stay in bed. My wife Debbie informed me that we needed to be up to the “grassy bowl” in our neighborhood for Denise Anderson’s annual Donut Run. I didn’t want to go. I really didn’t want to talk politics or analyze the election with anyone. “We were going, because that is what this neighborhood does,” Debbie reminded me.
Everything changed as we arrived at the 3rd annual 1k Donut Run sponsored by our friend. (Yes 1k and doughnuts — which I think is genius). Denise has organized this event with proceeds going to a variety of good causes.
As I looked around the crowd there was an energy and buzz of excitement. Smiling faces everywhere. I saw a number college students who had spotted the run on social media and decided to drop in. I saw young kids from our neighborhood running around and playing games in the grassy bowl. (I think they ran more before the race than during race). I witnessed parents and friends from our community having conversations on topics that ranged from the World Series to caring for aging parents, how they could contribute more to the cause to what an absolutely gorgeous fall day it was. There was even a United States senator, who used to live in the neighborhood, and a local county commissioner there to lend support.
The organizers gathered the group together with a small bullhorn and thanked everyone for being part of something that mattered on a Saturday morning. The senator made a few quips about the length of the race and how everyone would have to be determined to endure in order to get to the doughnuts waiting at the end of the street. Then he repeated a line I had heard him say countless times in the past, “That because of people like you, America’s best days are still ahead.”
I stepped back and looked at the scene of a community coming together to do good. Denise had not received a mandate from Congress to create such an event. No one there was threatened with imprisonment or a tax penalty if they didn’t participate. They just came — because that is what Americans do.
With the sound of the bullhorn, the race began and was over in a matter of minutes. The doughnuts and hot chocolate were great, the laughs, smiles and conversations continued as neighbors and friends lingered for well over an hour. My hope, energy and confidence was restored as I was reminded what truly drives freedom — ordinary people, in ordinary neighborhoods, doing seemingly ordinary things. But in so doing, they make America most extraordinary.
My hope, energy and confidence was restored as I was reminded what truly drives freedom — ordinary people, in ordinary neighborhoods, doing seemingly ordinary things. But in so doing, they make America most extraordinary.
Presidential politics hadn’t played a role at all. In fact, the only real mention I heard of presidential politics was Denise describing her reaction to someone who was distraught and angry about where the country might be headed. Denise described to the person a conversation she had with her young daughter. She said that, for her family, the moment the election ended they began to include the president-elect in their prayers, just as they had prayed for the current president, President Obama, over the past eight years — because that is also what Americans do. The Anderson family wasn’t interested in a moment of prayer — they had created their own family movement of prayer for the nation.
On Sunday in front of more than 12,000 attendees at the DCU Center outside of Boston, a world religious leader stepped to the podium in an area richly steeped in American history. He transformed what was an important moment into something bigger, better and perpetually more powerful. M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints invited everyone to join him in a prayerful movement.
President Ballard said, “My dear brothers and sisters, our nation was founded on prayer, it was preserved by prayer, and we need prayer again. I plead with you this evening to pray for this country, for our leaders, for our people, and for the families that live in this great nation founded by God. Remember, this country was established and preserved by our founding fathers and mothers who repeatedly acknowledged the hand of God through prayer. This area was the seedbed of so very much that led to the founding of this nation. Tonight I invite you to join in a new movement. Invite your neighbors, your colleagues, your friends on social media to pray for this country.”
He concluded, “We must stand boldly for righteousness and truth, and must defend the cause of honor, decency and personal freedom espoused by Washington, Madison, Adams, Lincoln, and other leaders who acknowledged and loved God.”
The nation has had many moments of prayer after horrendous human tragedies and in the wake of natural disasters. It has also experienced movements of prayer during the founding of the nation, the Civil War, the Great Depression, among others. All around the country and across all faith traditions, a movement of prayer — including prayers for the nation, families, neighborhoods, individuals of every belief and of no belief — will do wonders and move the country to higher ground.
As the 2020 election cycle ramps up, a movement of prayer combined with connected communities and individuals committed to making a difference may be precisely what this nation, under God, indivisible, truly needs.