The 4th of July is just around the corner and it causes me to consider how different our country is from the one I called home as a child. In 1967, Detroit burned because of conflict between whites and blacks. I remember my dad taking me to a baseball game in 1968 in downtown Detroit seeing buildings still smoldering because of the fires that destroyed so much of that city. The Kent State riots, the Vietnam War fall-out and the government corruption were all front-page news during my early years. I thought I understood the unrest then. I thought I understood the pain people fought against in that culture. Today, I see a great divide. I see people hating others and not even willing to discuss our differences. We have become a people of hate and anger and intolerance. I still love my country. I still love living here and can’t imagine living someone else, but I wonder where we are heading. I don’t have a solution for health care. I don’t really know how to solve many of the issues we are facing today as a people. But I do know one thing; “if my people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (II Chronicles 7:14) As Christians, we can complain and point fingers at the disintegration of our culture, but as II Chronicles tells us, it is the people of God that are to humble themselves, pray and seek the face of God and turn from their wicked ways, then God will act. The burden is on us as Christians to ask God to move in our land.
