Meditation of the Divine Will by Abraham Lincoln

I'm unable to ignore the fact that it is a major election year. There's no escape from the opinions on facebook, the precursory ads for candidates on youtube, and of course the various news media. At some point I'm bound to jump into the fire pit and get passionate about who our next president should be. I'll butt heads with many and I think that is a wonderful thing in a democracy- so long as we remain intelligent and maintain respect, looking at the person behind the beliefs.

I was particularly affected by these words of Abraham Lincoln in my recent reading on his life. In the midst of a civil war that divided his nation because of distinctly different belief systems, he remained humble and in trust of the sovereign will of God. How it reminds me of the sovereign will of God in the political and moral climate of our own days.

Meditation of the Divine Will

(a note written by Abraham Lincoln and revealed after his death)

The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God can not be for, and against, the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party- and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say this is probably true- that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By His mere quiet power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.