written, of course, the big story is that almost three weeks after the election, we still haven’t chosen a President. Turns out our system doesn’t do well with razor-thin margins or fight-to-the-last-breath candidates, particularly since our method of counting votes uses a surprisingly leaky bucket.

One can only hope that all this will be cleared up — without tanks in the streets, thank you — by the time this publishes, but let’s not let the whole thing pass without noticing something important. At the moment, I have no idea who has won this election, not to mention the damage done to the body politic or the untold billions in personal wealth flushed down the plumbing of electoral dysfunction. Nobody knows how all this will turn out, which very briefly makes our politics like the rest of life: We don’t know how it will end.

It’s easy to feel secure with peace at home and abroad, record-low unemployment and the Dow rising like a space shuttle launch. But only when thing start going south are we really tested. Only when our circumstances demand a recount — a recount of whom we really trust — can our real allegiance be proven. Do I trust God, or do I really trust personal health and a good economy?

Do I trust in wealth?
If anyone had reason to trust his own circumstances, it was Job. The richest man in his region, he was unspoiled by his own prosperity. When God allowed a quick succession of tragedies to test him, Job’s reaction showed where his ultimate trust was placed.

At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised" (Job 1:20-21).

In the parable of the rich fool, Jesus told a more familiar tale, of a man who trusted in his own riches.

“The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’” (Luke 12:16-20).

Do I trust in health?
Over the last century, human life expectancy in the developed world has increased by more than two decades. Advances in medicine, sanitation and public health have made the unimaginable commonplace, often creating new, unexpected problems. Cancer and heart disease continue to take their toll, for at least two reasons. First, other diseases haven’t killed us first. Smallpox, for example, used to kill thousands of people every year. Now it has been completely eliminated. Second, our own prosperity has hurt us. There’s too much food, too easily obtained. We eat too much and move too little (and not just on Thanksgiving).

Yet despite all the advances, all the miracle drugs and breakthrough procedures, every one of us is still, as man has always been, a heartbeat away from eternity.

After Job proved himself through the loss of his family and possessions, he was struck with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. The anguish was so extreme that he tried to soothe his sores by scraping them with a piece of broken pottery. His friends wept at his appearance.

Job to complete health and prosperity, because Job’s trust was never placed in his own circumstances, but always in God.

Do I trust in safety?
Jim Elliot felt a burden for evangelizing unreached peoples with the gospel. In 1956, he and four companions flew into the lands of the Auca tribe in Ecuador. Shortly after landing, the missionaries were attacked and killed.

Forty years later, a number of Christian churches are growing among the peoples in that region.

Was it foolish for Elliot to risk his life to reach others for Christ? Perhaps an entry in his own journal replies best: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

The Apostle Paul’s ministry was marked by constant danger. Yet he always at peace, because he trusted God.

“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13).

Trust in wealth, health or safety? Can’t count on it. Trust in political leaders? Can’t even pick ’em. But God promises to honor those who trust him: “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3).