This morning, many of us woke up to the news that we dreaded, an event we were sure could not happen, but it has. Donald Trump will be the president of the United States. Again. Our world has changed. Reality has shifted into another, bad place.

My late father was a professor of history at the University of Toronto. Years ago, he told me: “People assume that progress is the natural order of things, but they haven’t read history. There can be major shifts in a society that moves it back to a more traditional and authoritarian place and we shouldn’t assume it won’t happen in our time.” Dad was right and that’s where we are right now.

Good friends have asked me where I see hope and so I’m writing this piece to answer them and myself. Here are six ways to find hope today.

1. Remember that love prevails. Not Hallmark-Christmas-movie love, but the strong, binding love that lies deep in the heart of our relationships. We need to lean into that love. That love can provide the base upon which we live in very difficult times. So bring your family and friends together.
2. Find and build community. If you are a part of a church, create opportunities outside of worship for folks to gather and be together. The churches’ core practice of hospitality could play a central role in sustaining us right now. If you are not part of a church community, look for those places where there is community and go there or build your own network.
3. Build resilience. Many years ago when my wife Wendy and I were being prepared for our overseas internship to Sierra Leone, we learned a phrase that was incredibly helpful: “build a tolerance for ambiguity.” That means that circumstances are going to be unfamiliar and beyond your control or understanding, so you need to walk alongside them. We cannot control what is coming. What we can control is how we react and respond. Resilience means not being overwhelmed but absorbing the circumstances into your life and then figuring out how to respond in ways both big and small.
4. Look after yourself. We can only take so much, so look for small ways to find joy in a day. Go for a walk, get into nature, sleep, make love, talk to people who matter to you, find the connections you need to sustain yourself and your core relationships.
5. Recognize that the younger generation needs you. If you’re a parent or a grandparent, you have a particular job to role-model how to be empathetic, loving and strong to your kids and grandkids. Their world has changed too and we are going to have to help them navigate this. We can be upset, but we shouldn’t be overwhelmed and paralyzed by these emerging circumstances. Our stress will transfer itself to our kids and add to their burden.
6. Look for the spiritual reawakening. Recently, based on the interviews and research I have done for Broadview, I have come to the realization that we are in the very early stages of a spiritual reawakening. This will look and feel very different from the church paradigm, but it’s growing all over the Western world. I believe this reawakening will be transformative and outlast the next few years of coming chaos. So look for it, look for people who are part of it and join with them. Spiritual strength will be key for us and we need to build it like a muscle.

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Rev. Christopher White is a United Church minister who lives in Hamilton.

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