The election cycle has left me reeling. This summer for national reasons, but this week for a local election. Despite the support of the Rally Mantis, Ivy lost her student council bid.

The Rally Mantis has a special place in Ivy’s heart. While at the lake in Oklahoma we found a baby praying mantis. Then the Royals – suffering the worst July in baseball – found a mantis in their dugout and proceeded to have the best August in baseball. The team now carries the mantis in an atrium to every game and are back in the playoff hunt. Ivy likes to imagine we brought baby Rally back with us from the lake (I am not sure she knows the Royals are actually with Rally2, since the first Rally passed).

You might debate the mantis’s contribution to the Royal’s winning – first baseman Hosmer says it has more to do with the bullpen – but it is a great story. Even the NY Times is writing about Rally and the team store is stocking up on mantis heads.

Unfortunately the world rarely plays out like a good story.  The Royals have lost three in a row and are again on the outside looking in at the playoff race. And not every kid wins their student council election – no matter who is rallying behind them.

Ivy came home off the bus sad. Carrying her poster. Over half the class was in the race, so Meg and I suspected the result. We met her at the driveway and had a package inside. It was another contribution of the Rally Mantis – his likeness on a t-shirt.

Council elections aside, the world is broken. Healing can come on grand scales, but often our only answer is little acts of love. As the church we speak resurrection in the darkness. And in so doing we rally our neighbors to hope. We remind the world there is a better story already written.