Brace yourself for a bombshell. I am not an American. Some of you may think this a good thing, saving me from the inevitable slew of national embarrassments the country is about to suffer and for which the American people will continually apologise whilst anywhere but home soil. I’ve already been at conferences, before the election, which included a lot of apologies from our guest speakers from t’other side of the pond.

But not being American means I suffer from the dual misfortune of having the words and actions of Donald Trump now affect my everyday life without any right to vote him out of office. It is much like the EU really, just with power and law-making concentrated in one official unelected by most of us rather than a whole body of officials unelected by anybody. Ah what a joy it is to be a citizen of a globalised world in an insignificant and unimportant nation.

Alas, we had our time in the sun when we owned half the world and plunged Africa and India into centuries of poverty by using up all their resources and only giving their countries back when they were of no inherent value to us anymore. So whatever modicum of smugness you may feel in your Britishness right now, remember when we could do unelected damage round the world too. Unless Trump pushes the nuclear button – and whatever else we may dislike about the man and his schmoozing with Russia, his cosying up to Putin makes him eminently less likely to do so – he will cause much less damage around the world than we did when we were in a position to do any. So, think on.

Nonetheless, how are we to respond to our brave new world? As ever:

1. Remember that God is sovereign and even this was not outside his control
2. Remember that all kingdoms and empires are fleeting. Western democracies dictate a do-over every few years anyway (cf. the entire book of Daniel… and maybe all the books of prophecy… ah, whatever, just read the whole Old Testament)
3. Seek the welfare of the kingdom you are in for in its welfare you will find your welfare (cf. Jer 29:7)
4. Consider the eternal kingdom and work for its upbuilding, for eternity is much longer than the reign of Donald Trump

If all that sounds familiar, that’s probably because it is. It sounds like the sort of thing I said last time something I didn’t like happened. But it’s all true. Perhaps next time I should post it up about something awesome, just to level us out a bit?