You Voted For Who?

Don’t you just love election season? The commercials, the litter on a stick, the commentary, your Facebook and Twitter feeds…doesn’t it all just make you feel all warm and fuzzy?!

Sadly, there is nothing like election season to remind us of the cruelty that can accompany conviction. But, as I’ve said before, I know a different story is weaving its way through our world, a story of radical love and unending grace. This story has been unfolding for hundreds of years and is breaking forth all around us, everyday. Love is winning!

A few months ago, I asked for your messy stories, tales of uncomfortable grace. I am thrilled to welcome one of my best girlfriends here to share her story with you. 

By: Stephanie Falck

They say opposites attract. While we have a lot of things in common, my husband and I are opposites on a lot of things, too. He’s a night owl, and I’m an early bird. He’s creative and goes with the flow while I’m a type-A list maker. He enjoys running, and I like to do yoga. And, in the last presidential election, we voted for opposing candidates (though I won’t tell who voted for which party).

Leading up to the election, it didn’t even occur to me that he was considering voting for someone other than the person I was voting for. We watched the news and campaign on television together. We talked about the primary elections and who we thought would win, but never really said who we were planning on voting for. One day, we were having dinner with a family member, and they asked who we were planning to vote for. To my surprise, we revealed that were planning to vote for opposing parties.

We talked about our reasons for our votes. I had compelling reasons to vote the way I did and so did he. We gently tried convincing each other to change our votes, but neither of us was successful. There weren’t any arguments over our decisions; we each shared our opinions with love and respect. We even joked that on Election Day, we were just going to cancel each other’s votes out.

As far as I know, that’s exactly what we did. One of us voted for the current president and one of us voted for someone else. There was no gloating at our house that night as the votes were tallied. We ate dinner together as usual. We watched the election news and preliminary polling results together on television. But, at the end of the night, nobody’s feelings were hurt.

__________

Inspiring, right? May this kind of love and respect for others abound the next few weeks!

Are you in a close relationship with someone with convictions different from your own? Are you planning to vote for one candidate in a few weeks, but still committed to radically loving those that vote for the other one? Have you found a way to successfully disagree without vilifying? What do you do to see beyond differences when you meet someone new?

Please, oh please, won’t you consider sharing your stories of uncomfortable grace here in a guest post? Will you tell others about this and encourage them to tell their story? Together, we can shine a light on a different story and encourage others to write new pages in our tale.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Email your story to me (jennifer@everybreathitake.com). I won’t limit your words (though if it’s a long story I may break it into several pieces). There is no time limit. I will use this space to tell your stories for as long as you continue sending them to me.

2. Tweet this post and share it on Facebook.

3. Email a link to this post to someone who has inspired you with their radical love and ask them to share.

We are all different, but our need for love and grace is universal. Let’s shine a light on that! Thank you so much for helping me!