When I think about this beloved nation of ours, I can’t help but wonder just what’s in store. The words of Abraham Lincoln keep playing over and over in my mind (I changed the first four words to reflect today’s year. Lincoln’s words are in quotation marks).
Twelve score and four years ago ”our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
”Now we are (again engaging – my emphasis) in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war…”
Civil War may seem a little strong, but what should it be called? No, I’m not referring to the first civil war but the one that’s happening in our nation today. It doesn’t take much astuteness to see and feel the division and hatred.
During the four years of the War between the States more than half a million soldiers died. Both sides of the struggle, fighting for their ideologies and passions, lost more lives than in all the other wars this nation has been in throughout its two hundred forty-four year history combined.
Was it worth it then? It depends on who you ask as to what answer you’ll receive. I personally think so, but then again, I wasn’t around when it happened. To me, it was because all lives mattered and many were being treated as some sort of subhuman.
But is the war that’s being fought today the same as it was those many years ago? Are we fighting over things like slavery and the color of a person’s skin?
Or could it be something else?
Frankly, I believe it’s something else.
People are becoming more and more self-centered, more addicted to their own wants and desires. They don’t want to answer to any person or any God. They want to be in control.
Actually, it’s always been that way, but as time goes by the demand keeps growing. Laws are being passed by people who have the same desire for control. And with each new law, each new ”freedom” from antiquated and stuffy rules and values, there becomes an even greater desire for more and more ”freedoms”.
Now we’ve reached the point where almost anything is allowed, almost everything is legal, yet for many, it’s not enough.
So when will it stop? When will this war cease and life return to ”normal”?
This civil war is not like the first. This war will not end when one side surrenders. It won’t be over if a different person is in the White House. The division will become wider and wider. We have to understand there’s no winning this war unless everyone wins. Unless what’s good for one is, truly, good for all.
And the only way that can happen is for people to recognize there is a God in Heaven Who has the wisdom and ability to turn things around.
”Happy are the people who’s God is the Lord.” Psalm 144.
But as long as people keep fighting the ”God thing”, they will never quit fighting one another or each other’s ideologies.
I hate to make it sound so simple, but the only hope for America is God. Not my understanding of God, not your understanding of God.
But the Bible’s revelation of Who He is as demonstrated in the life of His Son Jesus Christ.
It’s time for each of us to humble ourselves before God and each other.
That is if we really want to see this nation healed.
Jan Grace 