Publication After the Election

Autumn’s drama dances on the stage this season. Rich reds, oranges, and tans overtake our maple and oak trees here in Indiana, enhanced by clear blue skies. ‘Tis the season.

Everywhere the season is dramatic. Sorrowfully so, in weather-torn and war- torn regions within our country and around the world. Anxiously so, with the coming elections in the USA. Personally so for me, as my book, A Traveler’s Guide through Suffering and Joy, prepares to be launched. Hopefully so for you, my readers as you anticipate the benefits of reading and sharing my “labor of love”,  as Dr. Walter Kaiser Jr.  so graciously describes it in his endorsement.

“So, what’s the release date?” you ask.

I finally have an answer. The book will be released on November 14, and will be available for purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and I believe CBD (and other main sites I’m not sure of).  Since it is so close to the election, my publisher and I decided to wait until after this to release the book.

My favorite tree of drama in our neighborhood. When you drive down our street, the street dead ends at this house where you must turn right or left. It is worth pausing at the stop sign just to stare in wonder at God’s artistry. Thank You, Lord!

During this season, what can and should you and I do?

I am sure we are praying, giving, and supporting relief efforts in various areas. We are also praying that God will use my book to help people make sense of suffering, discover resilient joy available to them, and that God will draw many people close to Himself, ministering to them in unique ways.  We are thanking God for His specific mercies and graces. Then, we who are citizens of the United States of America have been praying for our country and should be preparing to vote (if you haven’t already), and we should vote.

Since we live in a constitutional republic in which the governance is supposed to be sourced in the voting citizenry, we have a responsibility and stewardship to fulfill. Our form of government is ideally based upon self-government. Of course, we don’t have the ideal, but we have the ideal as our aim. While we have drifted from the aim, we can drift further or draw a degree closer. One degree change in direction will in time drastically change the direction.

I have read and heard that many Christians plan to sit out this election. I urge everyone to access online a voter’s guide from the county in which you live, read about the issues and candidates, pray, and vote all the way down the ballot.

There are many realities that disappoint us, but we must press on, one step at a time. On this blog some years ago I wrote about my conservative perspective which is a part of my biblical worldview. A conservative wants to conserve something: universal truths and permanent realities. Thus rooted, a strong conservatism will grow liberal limbs, moving in order to apply the rooted principles to new growth in current environments. I recommend Russell Kirk’s Concise Guide to Conservatism as a start, and any book by this man.  A true conservatism thrives in tension with a classic liberalism. Healthy conservatism and liberalism grow from the same roots planted in history, which is why they once actually shared many interests: liberty under the rule of law, individual rights, free speech, free markets, and even limited government.

We have lost this balance as government weighed down by its bureaucracies, barnacled and corrupted by big business, big pharma, big agriculture, and the military industrial complex have nearly suffocated the good principles of sound conservative-liberal, social-political life.

Our rooted principles nurtured in ancient wisdom are our country’s founding documents. How do we apply their principles and their directives in our day when current generations lack the grounding in our civic heritage? We have work to do on the ground level, the local level.

Nonetheless, we take the broken world as it is, our options as they are, and make decisions. “I don’t like the choices” some say. For instance, I’ve heard that some people think that because both presidential candidates are morally compromised, that neither should be voted for. What about a third party candidate? And so we go down the line.

We must look at presidential candidates as the top of a party ticket and then look at the policies and focuses of that party, considering the impact all the way down to the local level. Under such limitations, we must remember that we can be some ballast in the ship, helping to lean the ship closer to tipping or more towards the upright. We help to shift the balance. We pray and vote and trust God’s providence. I urge you to do so.

Nine days after the election my book will be launched, and you will find it on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles and maybe CBD. With all the drama going on in our world, I hope that you will be encouraged, strengthened, and inspired through my book, A Traveler’s Guide through Suffering and Joy.  Taking this journey, may you see the Lord Jesus more clearly than ever before.

Read about the book on my website: http://www.Karenthomasolsen.com.

Lord willing, I’ll tell you more next week.

I hope to provide you with a book blurb introduction that you can share with your friends on social media. I have to figure out how to do that next!

Pray! Praise!

I also encourage you to vote.

Jeremiah 29:7

“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile,

and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

**For further voting consideration:

https://crossexamined.org/what-if-i-dont-like-either-candidate/