Donald Trump Named Time’s 2024 Person of the Year Sparks Reflection on Life’s Choices

President-elect Donald Trump rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange yesterday morning, not long after Time magazine announced that it has selected him as its 2024 Person of the Year. This is the second time he has been so-named; he was also chosen in 2016 after winning the White House the first time.

The first person to receive this honor was Charles Lindbergh in 1927. In those days, the magazine called the award “Man of the Year.”

Every serving president of the United States has been Man or Person of the Year at least once, with the exceptions of Calvin Coolidge (in office at the time of the first issue), Herbert Hoover (the subsequent president), and Gerald Ford (the only president never elected to that office or vice president).

Would you have chosen Mr. Trump this year? Of course, you didn’t get a vote. It’s that way with nearly every dimension of your life: you are living with the consequences of decisions you didn’t make.

Led by Leaders We Didn’t Choose

We say we live in a democracy where the people choose their leaders. But that’s not really true. In the latest election, 77,285,106 Americans voted for Donald Trump. Out of a nation of 334.9 million, that’s less than a fourth of us. It was the same with Joe Biden in 2020: while he won 51 percent of the votes cast and the Electoral College, the large majority of Americans did not vote for him.

This is partly because roughly seventy-two million Americans are too young to vote. And partly because close to ninety million Americans of voting age didn’t vote.

Americans are led by leaders none of us individually had the power to choose, from presidents to governors, members of Congress, mayors, and so forth. It’s that way where you work: You likely didn’t choose your company’s owner or CEO. It’s that way with the teams you support: You didn’t choose their owner, head coach, or players. It’s that way with the restaurants where you choose to eat: You didn’t choose their owner, chef, or menu.

It’s even that way with your family: you didn’t choose your parents or your grandparents. While you may have chosen to have children, you didn’t choose these children. In nearly every dimension, life consists in choosing how you’ll respond to circumstances you didn’t choose.

“Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock”

Here’s the surprise: The highest Power in the universe has chosen to empower you to choose him.

Unlike your president or mayor or parents, your Creator will be your Father only if you choose to become his child (John 1:12). He will choose to be your healer or guide or comforter only if you choose to seek his help. He will lead you only if you will follow (cf. Jeremiah 33:3).

Jesus’ word to the Laodiceans is his word to us all: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).

This fact leads me to wonder: How much more of God could we be experiencing than we are today?

How to Join God’s “Hall of Faith”

Hebrews 11 is often called the “Hall of Faith.” Here we find some of the greatest heroes of biblical history. Why are they so honored by God?

“By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain” (v. 4).
Noah “condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (v. 7).
Abraham “went out, not knowing where he was going” (v. 8).
Sarah “considered him faithful who had promised” (v. 11).
Moses “considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward” (v. 26).
David is listed among those “who through faith conquered kingdoms” (v. 33).

Here’s their common thread: They chose God. They chose to obey his will wherever he led, whatever he asked, whatever the cost. They “acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (v. 13) and thus suffered mightily for their faith in this world that they might receive God’s reward in the next.

If you want to join God’s “Hall of Faith,” you’ll need to do what its occupants did, choosing to focus your life on what matters most to God and thus resonates most in eternity. This means obeying the word of God, since “the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8). And it means sharing the word of God with the world since every person you meet today will live forever in heaven or in hell (cf. John 3:16, 18).

Living biblically and acting redemptively may not earn you recognition by Time magazine or the secular authorities of our culture. However, living for God in this world will lead to his declaration in the next: “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

“In Christ, I Am Already Victorious”

Don’t settle for less than all the omnipotent and omniscient God of the universe can do with and through your life. You are the child of the King of the universe. You are gifted and equipped to do what no one else in this world can do.

The key is to stay “in Christ” by submitting to his Spirit, living by his word, and serving for his glory.

Watchman Nee testified:

Outside of Christ, I am only a sinner, but in Christ, I am saved. Outside of Christ, I am empty; in Christ, I am full. Outside of Christ, I am weak; in Christ, I am strong. Outside of Christ, I cannot; in Christ, I am more than able. Outside of Christ, I have been defeated; in Christ, I am already victorious.

Can you say the same today?

NOTE: For practical ways to live in God’s will by God’s power, see my latest website article, “Christian explains why she posts ‘adult’ videos on OnlyFans.”

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.