This year has been exhausting, hasn’t it? I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’m limping my way into 2017. Yes, we still have a month left, and Christmas! But as we begin to look back on how this country elected a fear-mongering reality TV star to be the leader of the free world, one word becomes clear: fear. I personally feared losing my love for a sport and my family feared my health once they saw how much college was really taking of me. This world many times fears what’s next…and that has been the issue since the dust has settled.

When we go through rough patches, it is easy to want to avoid those patches again. We fear what will come if we take the next step and be vulnerable. When that girl across the table is making eye contact, you want to know more, but you are afraid because last time you did, you were humiliated. When your parents divorce, you may avoid wanting to associate with significant others ever again because you fear failure. You went to Colorado once and you got elevation sickness, but won’t ever go again because you fear being that burden to your friends and family.

But has fear got us anywhere?

In 2016, thousands of Syrians have been displaced from their homes, fleeing a civil war tearing apart their culture and life. America instead has closed arms of compassion to women and children looking for safety. What is there to fear?

In 2016, the immigrants that made this country great were told that families may be separated due to the tough decision of an ancestor. A shelter in the Irish Famine, Vietnam War fallout, Sino-Japanese War, was turning into the closed wall countries that fell by the wayside.

In 2016, we feared the next death of a celebrity when this year took so many.

In 2016, we feared that Rio would not be ready for the impending Olympics and that terror plots would ruin the uniting Games.

In 2016, we feared but it did not change the outcome.

This country was built on fearless people just looking for a better life. They went west, building towns, economies, taking chances, never looking back. Sure, they made stupid decisions, but it drove everyone forward.

As a Christian, fear made countless Biblical figures cower away from the plans God had for them. Fear overcame the hearts of people who were not in God’s path. “Fear not” is in the Bible 365 times and it seems that American Christians (or at least claim to be) have forgotten such a frequent theme.

This election was a fear vote between two unideal candidates. It was exhausting because all Americans saw was the negative versus the good that they could bring to this country. According to exit polls, 81% of “Evangelical Christians” voted for Donald Trump. I believe they feared the prospect of a liberal Supreme Court and that may have been enough.

Fear will not bring us forward. Fear breeds more fear. The fear that Trump drilled into his base was that Hillary was worse, refugees were terrorists, immigrants are taking all the jobs, and America was losing. But his campaign has just bred more fear in the people that are directly affected by the decisions of the new administration.

In conclusion, fear is not going to change the outcome. We can only be confident in the identity of our creation in God, knowing He has a plan, and is working in ways we cannot even fathom.

“In all things, God works for the good of those who love Him” ~Romans 8:28