What will happen next to Elon Musk?

You can appreciate Elon Musk or disparage him, but it’s hard to ignore him. The shortest of bios would include these facts:

• He is the wealthiest person in the world.
• He owns Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, X (formerly Twitter), and xAI.
• He also started PayPal and Zip2.
• He has been a senior advisor to President Trump and the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

In addition, he and his affiliated groups spent $21 million in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race this week, hoping to elect a conservative and thus shift the balance of the court. Republicans had been pessimistic about their odds in the race given their history with such relatively obscure elections in the state.

Their fears became fact as Musk’s efforts, at most, shifted the election by 1 percentage point; Susan Crawford won the race convincingly and preserved liberals’ four-to-three court majority.

Now the Wall Street Journal reports that “President Trump and Republicans have a big decision to make” about Mr. Musk: “continue to leverage his fame and fortune on the national stage or politely ask him to stay backstage.” He was already expected to step down from his role as a special government employee, likely by this summer. Now President Trump has reportedly told his inner circle, including members of his cabinet, that Mr. Musk will be stepping back from his current role in the coming weeks.

However, according to the Journal, some Republicans and White House officials have been expressing worry that he could continue to cost them in elections and question whether he should leave the national political stage sooner rather than later.

An election decided by 537 votes

You may not remember President Michael Dukakis. That’s because there hasn’t been one, but not for lack of trying. Mr. Dukakis was the Democratic nominee for president in the 1988 election. At one point he was ahead of George HW Bush by 17 points in the polls, a lead so large that I heard a radio commentator speculate as to the cabinet “President Dukakis” would create.

Then there was President Nixon—not the one who was elected in 1968 and resigned due to the Watergate scandal six years later, but the one who came within 4,500 votes in Illinois and 28,000 votes in Texas of defeating John F. Kennedy for the White House in 1960. Calculated differently, a switch of 11,871 votes among Hawaii, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Nevada (out of 69 million votes cast) would have won him the election.

And of course, the election of 2000, in which more than 100 million votes were cast, was decided for George W. Bush by a 537-vote margin in Florida.

I say all of that to say this: politics can turn on tiny hinges. If Elon Musk’s preferred candidate had won in a Wisconsin judicial race that most of the country would otherwise have ignored, we likely wouldn’t be having this conversation. But even the world’s wealthiest person is subject to the vagaries of elections and all they reflect in our unpredictable world.

Stepping off the transactional treadmill

One chief reason the Bible urges us, “Do not love the world or the things in the world” (1 John 2:15) is that these “things” are so fleeting. Our secularized culture measures success in secularized ways: popularity, possessions, and performance among them. But popularity is fleeting; possessions are momentary; performances are transitory.

And even if we win the “game,” when it is over the pieces go back into the box. From the Taj Mahal to the most obscure cemetery in the most distant field, we all possess the same worldly possessions after we die—nothing.

The problem is, we cannot see this reality before it becomes our reality. None of us can look beyond the grave; all we can see is the material world that surrounds and entices us today. In this way, we are solipsists (philosophers who argue that the world exists only to the degree that it is being perceived).

It therefore takes a great step of faith to live for the next life at the expense of this life, to choose faithfulness to Jesus even at the cost of popularity, possessions, and performances.

Perhaps it will help us to reflect on the fact that what our fallen world gives, it takes away. In a transactional society, we are only and ever a means to someone else’s ends. We are consumers being persuaded to buy something, or we are products (by virtue of our appearance and performance) being sold to others.

The better way to serenity and security is to step off the transactional treadmill of our culture and into a transformational relationship with the living Lord Jesus. Start the day by submitting it to his Spirit in worship and obedience, then practice his presence throughout the day by thinking biblically and acting redemptively. Do that and you can experience an abundant and joyful life that no other source can offer.

By walking with Jesus in such an intimate way, “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

A poem that deeply impressed me

I’ll close by illustrating my point through a poem I encountered recently that impressed me deeply. I had heard the chorus over the years, but I had not seen the stanzas.

CT Studd was born in 1860 into a family of wealth and privilege. In 1883, he graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge. A life of social status and financial comfort was available, but he chose instead to enter the mission field with Hudson Taylor in China.

He spent his life serving the Lord in China, India, and Africa. In 1913 he formed the World Evangelization Crusade, which operates (as WEC International) to this day. He died in 1931 in Ibambi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He is perhaps remembered best for this poem, which explains his decision to use this life for the life to come:

Two little lines I heard one day,

Traveling along life’s busy way;

Bringing conviction to my heart,

And from my mind would not depart;

Only one life, ‘twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, yes only one,

Soon will its fleeting hours be done;

Then, in “that day” my Lord to meet,

And stand before his judgment seat;

Only one life, ‘twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, the still small voice,

Gently pleads for a better choice.

Bidding me selfish aims to leave,

And to God’s holy will to cleave;

Only one life, ‘twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last. . . .

Oh let my love with fervor burn,

And from the world now let me turn;

Living for thee, and thee alone,

Bringing thee pleasure on thy throne;

Only one life, ‘twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, yes only one,

Now let me say, “Thy will be done”;

And when at last I’ll hear the call,

I know I’ll say “twas worth it all”;

Only one life, ‘twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Will what you do today “last”?