Friday/Sunday....America.....Reflection

How does one go about self-examination as to whether or not one has strayed from God's will or broken away from one's moorings? How does a nation? I know that many of my blogs are dark or pessimistic but I would ask you this "Is there ever a time for pessimism, and are there ever times that would be considered dark?" One would expect an ebb and flow of pessimism and optimism. My own answer to these questions would be yes and, these are the times, this is the moment. My gut feeling is that we (America) cannot possibly get through this mire that we have waded into without help. This should be a time for weeping and gnashing of teeth but we are hypnotised. We simply refuse to consider the extent of the trouble we are in. We continue to seek the good life. The 50s were a time for seeking this good life and the 60s gave us an image of it in many television sitcoms, none more so than in Rob Petrie's life, but disaster ensued in the late 60s and we have not been set free from this tailspin since. Can we even glean a hint of concern from the culmination of the Roaring Twenties and it's aftermath of poverty and war, yet the stakes are much greater today? Is it really what we want for everyone to be upbeat, without a concern? I addressed this concept of self-examination to myself before even considering writing about it concerning America. We are, as a race, inflicted with an infection that causes us to seriously err, the idealist and the realist both. The infection becomes deadly when we fail to acknowledge this. On the other hand, we cannot become discouraged or disconsolate and withdraw from the battle because we, or those we support, have erred. We have to live our lives acknowledging our own proclivity to make mistakes but humbly going on from there for there is no alternative. If we as individuals, or as a nation, can clearly see that this inherent weakness demands help from without, then we might seek it. I know this: God will not be mocked. He is long suffering, patient and loving but He is also a God of justice. We are on borrowed time, as the saying goes, right now. The foundation to discern where we have fallen short is the Bible, and the answers to our dilemma will come only through prayer and reading God's word to us, first. We are not going to meditate on our own and come up with the answers. The answer for America is also in reverencing God but not in words etched in marble above the Supreme Court bench but acknowledged in the minds of those sitting on the bench, not written in legislation but in the hearts of those who write the legislation, not from a speech writer's pen but through anguished prayer from the Oval Office and not on the decision of the voter in the booth but in his reliance on the Word of God the previous 364 days. Taking my own advice, I am far less than thrilled with my own self-examination.