America Turn

Several times over the past few weeks people have asked me if I thought the virus was a judgment from God. A wake up call from America. Many believe this to be the case.

I look around me in bewilderment at what has happened in such a short period of time. At the things our country has lost. First, look at the mounting loss of life. Prognostications are alarming. I think of all the grieving families. If these numbers escalate like they predict it will be unlike anything we have ever known in our lifetimes. Funerals will happen more frequently.

I consider the economic devastation trickling across the country. We boasted in our strong economy. Many found security in the stock market with is free falling. Fortunes have been lost in a matter of hours. Retirement investments vanished. Jobs lost are staggering as people scramble to try to figure out how to make it through mortgage and rent payments. We are experiencing shortages at the markets. Businesses are shutting down. Some churches may be forced to do the same.

Our idol of sports is gone. No little leagues and select teams. No high school sports, college or professional sports. All the specialized coaching, training and practices gone. Stadiums are empty. Iconic sporting events canceled.  There are no excursions to escape reality at the theater. Concerts are no longer held. Conferences of all sorts canceled. In short our entertainment is reduced to binge watching sitcoms and movies at home.

Worship in person largely cancelled. Services are streamed. Who knows the toll this will take on houses of worship long term. How many will never be regular attenders again. How many churches will fold up due to lack of offerings from congregants.

Our ability to go out and eat together is gone. Our freedoms to travel now hampered. Even freedom to drive around in some cities is extremely limited to only essential travel.

I sit here this morning trying to take all this in. How much we have lost in such a short time. So much of it that lured us away from God. I know all this has me on full alert. I pray for a breakthrough. What I also pray is that the souls of our people, the soul of the nation would turn back to God in repentance and dependence on Him.

Our currency reads, "In God we trust." What a fabrication. America trusts in her intellect, her ability to reason, to research, to find logical solutions. We trust in our resources and ability to create wealth. We trust in our wisdom. We trust in ourselves. We don't trust in God. This nation has removed God from every sector of society. We have legalized the very things God forbid. We have embraced behaviors God shuns. We have boasted about our achievements. Achievements now have been reduced to clever videos posted from home, new recipes tried, along with arts and crafts.

We wait on a medical solution while health care workers are overworked and overrun. America wake up. We can't just fix this. The home of the brave and land of the free. People's reactions and panic have shown cowardice more than courage. Our fundamental constitutional freedoms are lost. Our economy in shambles. The health of the nation at peril.

America, we must turn back to God. We must repent of our wicked ways. We need to acknowledge our dependence upon Him. We must submit to His leadership. Politicians can't promise their way out of this. The rich can't buy their way back to normal. The educated cannot just reason their way to restoration of life as we used to know it. Athletes can't throw, kick, shoot or physically impose their will against the formidable disease for victory. Hollywood can't act or use special effects to make it all go away.

God is our only hope. Yep. That same God many shout does not exist. That same Yahweh whose name is used in profanity. That same Creator who is ignored with other scientific explanations for our existence. Our nation is crippled in a way most of us have never seen. We are in shock. How did everything going so good turn so bad so quickly.

Many of the things we cherished as a nation have been stripped away. We stand naked, weakened and ashamed at our inability to fix this and make it go away. We have tried social distancing, self quarantines, shelter in place, hand washing. America, it is way past time we turn back to God. Way past time.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)
¹⁴  if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.