I’ve put together this Saturday Series piece before knowing the election results, but no matter what happens we’ll see lots of teeth-gnashing. That’s why I’ve moved up to now what I first planned as a December pre-Christmas special: Even though Christmas is still almost seven weeks away, we need to pay attention to what’s crucial rather than what’s ephemeral. So here are four columns—from 2002, 2005, 2007, and 2010—that may help us to concentrate our mind and spirit.

Today is Reformation Day, marking the 503rd anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing of his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany, jumpstarting the Protestant Reformation. In July, we lost another great Protestant theologian, J.I. Packer. But praise God his decades of work remain with us.

Veteran journalist Seth J. Frantzman writes the kind of first-hand accounts of terror-strewn battlefields that once set apart top American periodicals, before they devolved into political rags. The American-born author lives in Israel, where he is the OpEd editor for The Jerusalem Post and a Middle East analyst covering the region.

Many of our readers have told us how much they appreciate the writings of John R. Erickson, the author of the popular Hank the Cowdog series of children’s books. Over the past few months, thanks to the University of North Texas Press, WORLD has published as part of our Saturday Series chapters from his Through Time and the Valley. The book, first published in 1978, recounts Erickson’s journey in 1972 on horseback through the Texas Panhandle’s isolated Canadian River valley.

Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi are distinguished Israeli historians who draw on recently uncovered archives—including government caches and missionary correspondence—to document three episodes of mass killing that make up what’s known as the Armenian Genocide. In their 2019 book The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey’s Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894-1924, they pan out from the 1915-16 bloodbath to include three decades of tightly systematized extermination targeting not only Armenians but also Assyrians, and Greeks.

As pundits write about whether this is a Flight 93 election—win or die—and an election that won’t be decided until well after Nov. 3, I’ve delved into previous WORLD coverage to see what’s new and what’s just blue. So here’s a three-parter. First, reflections on what seemed like pivotal elections. Second, what it was like right after Election Day 2000, when we had an indecisive election. Third, what it was like five weeks later when the Supreme Court finally ended the suspense—and, then, no one rioted.

Like many young pastors, Stephen Witmer dreamed of pastoring a big, center-city church, believing that’s where God does His most significant work. Instead, he became a pastor in Pepperell, Mass. (population 11,497 in 2010), a place only slightly larger than his hometown in Maine. In A Big Gospel in Small Places: Why Ministry in Forgotten Communities Matters, Witmer explains his personal about-face and makes a theological case for small-place ministry.