Yes, m’am. I did.

And see… I have the sticker to prove it.

And because Joan and I live and vote in Colorado, we had the chance to sit down with the Blue Book, study the pros and cons of every ballot measure and candidate carefully, mark our ballots, and then turn them in at a ballot drop box a couple of weeks ago.

[I am still pining for the day when the technology exists that will opt me out of campaign commercials and texts upon receipt of my ballot by election officials. Come on, A.I.! Get busy on that, would you?]

My aim in casting my ballot was to discern which candidate – and which side of each initiative – best fulfilled Christ’s commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.” (of course, a quote from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:43, but actually his reprise of the original commandment found in Leviticus 19:18. Yes… THAT Leviticus.)

I will admit this criterion was not terribly easy to apply. How do you discern, for example, the amount of “love your neighbor” juice to be found in a proposal to raise local sales taxes by ¼ of 1% to pay for infrastructure improvements?

With candidates, on the other hand, the “love your neighbor” test was a bit easier to apply. They all have track records and platforms that give strong clues about their Christ-like leanings. With that in mind, you would be correct to assume that I did not vote for anyone who smelled even remotely like a fan of the current administration. This gang has been the source of so much cruelty, hate, and innocent suffering since they came into power that I am ENERGIZED to help toss every one of them out onto the street and slam the door behind them.

I am especially excited to see if my friend and former boss, Adam Hamilton, can become the first Democrat from the state of Kansas to serve in the U.S. Senate since 1932. GO ADAM!

But now we just sit and wait. We wait for the results to come in. We wait to see how big and strong the expected “blue wave” really turns out to be. We wait for the victory and concession speeches. We wait for the exit polling and all the data and analysis on “The Big Board” from Steve Kornacki and other pundits. We wait for the idiotic claims of “widespread voter fraud” that will surely spew forth from the mouths of the losers.

While we are waiting, though, it is a good time to remind ourselves about the real source of our hope. Solid, enduring, unshakable hope for the future does not come from the Democratic Party. It does not come from the Republican Party. Or the Libertarian Party either, for that matter.

Hope that does not disappoint EVER comes from no human source at all. It comes only from God.

Paul says more about the subject of hope in his letter to the fledgling church at Rome than in any other book of the New Testament. That’s probably because this church was under constant threat from the dominant Roman culture around them, living in fear that their next meal might be their last.

And so, to help those believers hold tightly onto something beyond their current, unsettled situation, Paul writes, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Romans 5:1-5, NRSVUE).

Today, regardless of what happens at the polls, I wish you peace. The peace that comes through faith in Christ, the peace that endures beyond our present struggles, and which passes ALL understanding.

Abundant blessings;