The presidential election is finally over! With a campaign that began two years ago, it’s no wonder that people are relieved. No matter who won, this was a historic election. The possibilities were that we would elect the first African-American president or that we would elect the first female vice president. We elected Barack Obama, a senator from Illinois.

Obama is somewhat of a political unknown, meaning that he hasn’t been in the national eye for a long time. His vice president, on the other hand, is Joe Biden, a senator I don’t care for. Many people are excited about hope and change, although I’m not sure Obama articulated how that would look. Expectations are high; I hope he can live up to some of them. I hope he can do the hard, necessary things for the long term good of this country. That will make him unpopular, but we can’t continue to pretend that a huge national debt, uninsured citizens, dwindling social security funds, and a myriad of other ills will take care of themselves. We are going to have to endure some pain.

The problem with pain is that none of us wants to experience it. The consensus seems to be, “Let someone else bear it.” Who would that be? When everyone squawks about the high price of gasoline, they don’t realize alternative fuels are expensive to develop. Calling on the government for funding is no solution. We could use less dependency on government solutions and be more responsible for taking care of ourselves. More government leads to ineffective bureaucracies whose aim is self-survival. Do you know any agency or bureau that has put itself out of business? Not likely!

Obama needs our prayers. I started a group on Facebook to do exactly that. There were other groups already but they called for prayers for a particular outcome. They want Obama to govern as they see fit, to make decisions they want. That’s too short-sighted. Obama has to lead as he feels is best. We need to pray for him to use wisdom, not to behave in a particular way.