Who Has The Answers?

 

As the November election nears, we’re going to hear from two political parties. Both will point out our nation’s problems and claim they have the solutions. What should we believe? Who should we support?

Listen carefully and prayerfully: Stand for God’s kingdom principles! Don’t be overly impressed by a party’s rhetoric, a slick speech, a pleasant smile, or an attractive personality. For every problem, challenge, mountain, or valley we face, Someone has told us that He can help us walk through it and overcome it. The greatest teacher, Jesus, said, “You can level the mountain and cast it into the sea.” He promised to be with us in every valley – even in death’s dark shadow. Our God made it very clear, “There is not a ditch or a pit that I can’t lift you out of.”

Whether you are registered as a Democrat or a Republican, you will not ride a donkey or an elephant to ultimate victory. God alone can lift our nation out of the valley of despair and empower you to overcome challenges and obstacles. Let’s settle it once and for all: NO PHAROAH, KING, OR EARTHLY RULER IS ADEQUATE FOR THE TASK. We must hear God and follow His direction.

Whatever political banner you may wave, you need the banner of the Lord and the principles of Almighty God or you are going nowhere but down. The way up is God. The way out is Divine Direction. True north is always found pointing to the Father. Set your course according to the one undeniable reliable compass and sail our ship of state in that direction. Insist on a crew that will do it and join with other passengers demanding the necessary course correction.

If you want poverty and unemployment properly addressed and meaningful programs sustained, stop the insanity! We can’t spend money we don’t have. You can’t rob from the yet- to-be-born and steal from our children, their children, and future generations. This is a blatant disregard of the eighth commandment. It is essential for all of us to help shoulder the load and be willing to sacrifice, but we must not expect any one group to provide more money to be misused when we haven’t first diligently cut excess and corrected failed programs. The American people are not responsible for buying every family member considered to be below the “poverty level” (where most people today have at least two bedrooms, air conditioning, and one or two cars) smart phones for their children, X-boxes and Lebron James athletic shoes, or provide food stamps so they can buy junk food, more 2-liter sodas, and potato chips and then talk about how they need more food when so many are obese.

I don’t know anyone more anxious to assist the suffering, the poor, the hurting, and the helpless anymore than Betty and I and our friends who watch LIFE Today and support the outreaches of LIFE. I personally believe nearly every American is anxious to find ways to effectively help the poor, the hopeless, the homeless, and certainly our veterans. Every true American also wants to effectively address the health crisis in a meaningful way, but we’re going to contribute to a psychological, mental, and emotional collapse if we don’t get our head out of the sand and move in the right direction.

Archbishop Charles Chaput explains:

Living within the truth means living every day and every moment from the unshakeable conviction that God lives, and that his love is the motive force of human history and the engine of every authentic human life… Living within the truth also means telling the truth and calling things by their right names. And that means exposing the lies by which some men try to force others to live… We are ambassadors of the living God to a world that is on the verge of forgetting him. The form of the Church, and the form of every Christian life, is the form of the Cross… Let us support each other – whatever the cost – so that when we make our accounting to the Lord, we will be numbered among the faithful and courageous, and not the cowardly or the evasive, or those who compromised until there was nothing left of their convictions; or those who were silent when they should have spoken the right word at the right time.[i]

The preceding are wise words from a representative of the Catholic faith community. I am a representative of faith frequently referred to as protestant evangelical Christian. We both love God, others, those in need here and around the world. We also care deeply about the future of our nation and are both convinced we need the guiding light that only God can provide. The people who profess faith and are part of these two groups could easily provide the inspiration, insight and meaningful influence so desperately needed to reset our nation’s course to true north and a safe, secure future.

The history of our country is but a short chapter in God’s grand, unfolding cosmic drama. Yet it is the chapter in which we live and choose and act. We have been told how the story ends, but not how our chapter ends, perhaps because, mysteriously, it is given to us to help write it. Our hands are feeble, our eyes are dim, and our resolve is weak. Yet we must face the trouble now if our children are to live in peace. So let us pray more fervently than we have ever prayed for a historic outpouring of the Holy Spirit on us, His Church. Not an outpouring that merely moves us to tears, but a cascading waterfall of God’s suffering and abiding love, which will lead us to act with bravery, to walk with integrity, and to stand in unity for the renewal of our culture and the restoration of our nation – one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.