Elliott The election is inevitable. Tomorrow we will choose a new president. One of the candidates will serve in one of the most powerful positions in the world. The other will lose. Some people will relish in the “thrill of victory”; others will wallow in the “agony of defeat.” In a few months, there will be a peaceful transition of power, and our country will enter a new season of its political life. “What will this mean for our future?” is the most immediate question.

However, there is another more serious question that we must answer: “How will we treat one another after the votes have been cast, election day 2016 has come and gone, and the results have been tallied?” After all, our politics—dirt and all—are what you make them.

Will we simply treat one another as winners and losers, and whatever side you are on determines your attitude? Will we continue to compete, choose sides, and condescend from our respective positions? Will we offer opinions like they are the truth? Will we hear the party rhetoric as if only one side has all of the answers? Will self-interest and entitlement continue to rule the day?

OR will our media be truly social? Will we exercise good will towards one another, favoring right judgment, working together in solving some of the more imminent challenges facing us, choosing love over hate? Will there be true concern for the poor and the rich? The friend and the neighbor? The soldier and the enemy? The religious and otherwise? The refugee and the immigrant? Democrat and Republican?

Though I am grateful for my right to vote, I realize that my vote does not have the power to affect the entire outcome of a national election. My faith in Jesus Christ is different.

What I do decide is how I treat my neighbor. And that is a choice I make every day.