Kamala’s name is in the news again as she mulls over a run for governor of California.  Online news source Reform California says, “Please, God, no.”  Molded from the same “goo” as Gavin Newsom, Reform California lists seven reasons why you should worry if even he mulls a run for the presidency.

So why should you mull a run for office over?  Because I did, and because our constitutional republic demands that citizens be involved.  It’s messy, and you will be attacked, but it’s worth it, because on this journey called life, we are supposed to be in the fight.

I ran and won, and let me tell you: it is the worst and best thing that has ever happened to me.

It wasn’t my idea.  A gentleman impressed with my powers of speech came up to me at a Republican Women’s luncheon and asked me if I had ever considered running for city council.  I thought, “Get away from me, Satan,” but then I said, “No.”  At the next meeting, he was there again, but he now had four people with him and a couple of small children — the kind with the eyes you cannot say no to.  I prayed about it and figured it must be a “A God Thing.”

Once I embraced the idea, I began to imagine what it would look like.  In my naïve imaginings, I was in a parade, doing the Disney wave to grateful citizens.  They all smiled and waved back.  And then my bubble was burst.

Running for office is a lot of work: door-knocking, speech-giving, mailers, meetings, debates, and filings.  And then you get elected.  Now what?  If you are unlucky like me, you will have to sit next to a social justice warrior who believes in pushing the victim-victimizer narrative, and to perfectly act out the definition of sociopathy on you at every single meeting.

But you are equipped with something they are not: God.  Second Corinthians 4:8-9 reads, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”  Or for a shorter version, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” 

In either case, you actually do get stronger every time you are attacked.  I don’t know how to explain it other than “it’s a God thing.”  A friend of mine who was on the board of supervisors and then ran for assembly and lost told me it was every bit as dirty as you hear.

Once while visiting Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage in Tennessee, I walked through the halls highlighting the election of 1828 between Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, ranked in American history as one of the dirtiest.  Jackson was called an American Caesar, and Quincy was labeled as corrupt and extravagant.  Seems to me this is pretty mild compared to what the world just witnessed in the Harris vs. Trump election.  Watching Donald Trump get attacked via lawfare and two assassination attempts, we saw that he actually did seem to be getting stronger with each attack.

From personal experience, I can attest to a phenomenon called resilience, which is the ability to adapt and to overcome adversity.  This dynamic process is not an inherent trait.  It can be strengthened and cultivated only by throwing yourself into something difficult...like, say...running for office.  And if nothing else, in the end you would have perfected your Disney Wave.

Image: cagdesign via Pixabay, Pixabay License.