A Tuesday in November. What If It All Goes Wrong?

We’re all worried about a Tuesday in November, 50 days from now.It’s the place our minds and hearts are solely fixed on.Right now, our energies are understandably marshaled and our hopes pinned to this singular day ahead, as if at the end of it we will have some resolution, some sense of closure, as if healing and rest will finally come.But what if things don’t go that way?At a recent tour stop, a visibly exasperated woman asked me, through a breaking voice, “What if everything goes wrong on Election Day? What do we do then? If we lose, where will the hope be?”You may be asking yourself that, too.I’m not sure, but I imagine hope then will be wherever it is for you now.Regardless of what happens on that Tuesday in November, whatever propels you into the voting booth needs to push you to your feet when the sun comes up the next morning. Because no matter the outcome and whether you feel vindicated or devastated, whether there is calm or chaos, many things will still be the same:You’ll still be surrounded by systemic ills, relational fractures, and national discord. You’ll still have seen every grotesque reality that’s been uncovered over the past ten years.You’ll still be walking shoulder to shoulder with weary, wounded human beings who will be looking for compassionate people to see their suffering and to move toward them.You’ll still have a specific front row seat to a place filled with terrors and traumas, and you’ll be the only one with your unprecedented ability to be what that world needs.So where will hope be if it all hits the fan on that Tuesday in November?It will be you and me, finding whatever it is that pulls us out of the crippling funk of grief and sadness and disbelief we’ll want to stay in, and back into the fray of living.It will be found in our faith convictions and our personal burdens; in our activism and our advocacy, and in the stuff we’ll still believe in.It will be found in us deciding what matters most in this life, and whether or not it still matters enough to defend and protect it even if the threats seem greater than they are even now.Hope will be in the sunrise on Wednesday and how you decide to meet it.In that way, the day after that Tuesday in November is actually pretty important, too.On that day, there will still be hungry people needing to be fed, strangers seeking refuge, outsiders needing welcome, hurting people looking for the healers.No matter what happens, win or lose, you and I will need to place our energies and fix our gaze on the ways that we can choose gentleness, peace, and generosity, far away from the ballot box.Soon, we’ll experience one of the most pivotal, consequential moments in our lifetime.We’ll have a chance to allow our voices to be heard and to transform the very planet we’re standing on, as well as the one we leave to people who will follow us.We’ll get to leave an inheritance to those we love, and a legacy for those we’ll never know.That particular Tuesday, we’ll get to let our lives impact the lives of countless human beings with one simple, yet profound act that we participate in. It will be our sacred opportunity to speak precisely from our deepest convictions, to let our hearts clearly resound into the world, and to know that we can be the difference in the day. In the face of a deafening fear that would gladly overwhelm us, we’ll get the chance to let love have the last, loudest word.This is beautiful news. But the even better news is that we have that opportunity well before Tuesday, and we’ll have it long after it as well.As you read these very words, you have it.Every single moment we’re here, you and I get to be agents of equity and justice. We don’t have to wait for an event to choose such things, and we can’t be fooled into believing they have an expiration date either.As you move through these days, don’t miss the countless opportunities you have, with every seemingly infinitesimal decision to elect hope, well before you ever step into a voting booth, and long after you walk out into the day.So, yes, please canvass and organize and work and volunteer and protest and vote, and give everything you have to give. But regardless of the results of the election, remember that you always have that choice.Yes, that Tuesday 50 days from now is vitally important in ways that are difficult to comprehend and impossible to overstate.Wednesday is, too.Today is just as critical.This day is the most important day of your life.It always is.The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe