America, Consider Your Ways

In the short but powerful Old Testament book of Haggai, the prophet is faced with a backslidden people. They have abandoned the work of God for selfish pursuits and personal gain. As the prophet steps on to the pages of scripture, his message is simple and direct. He tells God's people to "consider" their "ways." Oh how America needs to hear that message today!

I do not mean to be vain or boastful, but I believe we live in the greatest country God has ever created. We are a nation founded upon the values of Jehovah God as given in His word, endowed with rights only He can give: "among these: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." As a group our founding fathers were enlightened enough to realize that no man made institution, no government or civic organization, no person can give these rights. Only God can, and our declaration of these rights which we will celebrate tomorrow, so rightly and succinctly declares this. But oh how we've drifted from the vision our founding fathers had for our nation.

The Unites States constitution declares that our government is to be "of the people, for the people, by the people." But people, do you feel in control of your government today? So whose fault is this? Well, it's ours of course. Someone once said, and I paraphrase here; "that when in any democracy the people discover they can vote themselves money, that democracy is doomed to fail." Instead of the servant leadership our founders intended, where the common man would serve and then return to his home, to allow others to serve. Instead we have evolved into a patriarchal government where tenure and the quest for power far outweigh service and the desire to do good.

Our politicians are judged far more for how much "bacon" they can bring home, than whether they have acted in the best interest of our nation and their constituency. The just deceased Robert Byrd was a clear example of this. Half the buildings and roads in West Virginia bare is name. I don't mean to dishonor the dead. Here in South Carolina long time senators Strom Thurmond and Fritz Hollings were about the same. Where has courageous leadership and statesmanship gone? Sadly, into pork barrel projects to satisfy us. And instead of correcting the problem by voting in new, less compromised leaders, we simply press the computer screen and send them back, so our pockets can be filled with other peoples treasure.

Oh how we need men and women in leadership who will "consider" our "ways!" The issues we face do not even touch upon the moral issues leading our nation to the road to ruin. Abortion, the sanctity of marriage, sexual immorality, drug and alcohol abuse, personal and national debt, the list seems endless. Much like the times of Haggai, we have left the word and work of the Lord for what is most convenient and comfortable for us.

The answer now is the same as it was in the days of Haggai. Israel then, and America now, need to return to the ways of God. We need to place our trust in God instead of man, the government and our own ingenuity. Man centered doctrine will only lead us further down the path to insured destruction. For this to change, God's people must lead that change and return to our God. Christ's church looks far more like the world than it does our risen Savior. If morality and justice are to become synonymous with our nation again, it will begin in the church.

So the plea of Haggai rings out. "Consider your ways." Consider them by the standards of God given to us in His word. If our words and actions have strayed from His way, the call is to repent and return to God. In order for us to love our nation properly, we must love God and each other properly. When "thus saith the Lord" means more to us than thus saith Fox News, CNN, our government and pocketbooks; then, maybe then, we can live up to the words we were founded upon. That all men are created equal, and that it is the Creator whom we serve first.