“Help save America – click here!”
It would certainly be nice if it were that easy, wouldn’t it? “Like” this Facebook post. “Follow me” on Twitter. Before you know it the problem will be … even worse.
Each day of our lives we are inundated with decisions. Most of them don’t matter. Do you want to eat Mexican or Chinese tonight? Should we go to the beach this weekend? How about the mountains? Maybe we’ll just stay home.
Even seemingly big decisions might not matter very much. Do you like this house or the one we looked at yesterday? Should we get a fun car or a practical car?
Sometimes, though, decisions matter more than we know. Whom do you marry? Should we have children? When? How many? How are the schools where we live? Should the kids go to Sunday School? These decisions shape not only the remainder of our lives, sometimes from a very young age; they shape the lives of our children … and theirs … and on down the line.
These decisions, the ones that do matter, can be approached as casually as a mouse click – but the effects live on, often forever. And if you believe in eternity, beyond forever.
In essence, the decisions that matter are the story of human history. Not only our personal decisions and lineage, but our nation’s decisions and lineage as well. A nation is really just a collection of individuals who share a particular worldview.
The war against America
Today, both our national lineage and worldview are under attack. This also is nothing new. It’s why wars have been fought, soldiers have been wounded and killed, cities destroyed, the innocent killed and maimed, enemies imprisoned for espionage and traitors hanged.
What is new, however, is that our own elected leaders are now the ones prosecuting the war against America. Thus when Islamists masquerading as Muslim refugees blow up Paris, our elected leaders quickly dip into the same immigration pool to further populate America with those of that same lineage and worldview. Why?
To keep America “safe” after importing growing numbers of people who do not share American values, a growing security apparatus has been put in place, as exposed by Edward Snowden. In concert with the major tech companies, clandestine monitoring of everyone’s communications, website postings, telephone calls, faxes, search histories and perhaps things we don’t yet know about are now handed over to faceless bureaucrats in the government to be retained … forever. The Constitution specifically forbids such activity by the government.
The legal guardians of the Constitution in the Supreme Court have now issued two nonsensical opinions, one on Obamacare and one on homosexual marriage, that have left many legal scholars scratching their heads.
Government is being run “off the books” without a budget and from a host of private email accounts in use by highly placed public servants. When exposed, they defend their actions and refuse to release correspondence. When ordered, they delay.
The Congress, although it holds the purse without which nothing in the government happens, seems more terrified of the Oval Office occupant than they are of angry voters back home.
As we move into another presidential election cycle, the Republican Party, which has the strongest primary candidate since Ronald Reagan, is plotting his undoing and has surrogates funding his demise in the upcoming primaries.
Decisions that matter – and those that don’t
Is it possible for problems to become so large that they become insolvable? If it is, then what’s the answer?
It depends on what you believe. If you are a secular humanist, the only world you know is the one you can see, feel, taste and experience in the here and now. If there is a problem to be solved, it is up to us. If you are a Muslim, in a sense you share that humanist belief. God will return to the earth once you have prepared it to receive him. It’s up to you.
If you are a Christian, what do you believe? Do you believe there is a supernatural world that coexists with our own, and whose inhabitants commingle with us? Do you believe that God gives mankind the tools necessary to solve his problems and has left us off on our own? Is the church, God’s collection of people presently assembled here on earth, tasked with making the world fit for Jesus’ return?
Is there any chance God is still actively involved in the world? Does He care about individuals – even those blowing themselves up, as well as the people they maim and kill?
There is an old phrase common among Christian missionaries that explains God this way: “When you come to the point where I’m all you have, you’ll find that I’m all you need.”
Perhaps America and its multitudinous Christians and Christian churches have needed to come to that point. Are we all to the point of one of the characters I’ve cast in my novel series who kneels before a dead woman on the beach, turns her head over her shoulders and yells at the top of her lungs, “God, I can’t do this!”
Churches on Sunday mornings are good about asking for “wisdom and guidance for our elected leaders.” But maybe God is doing something else, and our prayers have become irrelevant to His purposes. Maybe God has a larger view of our circumstances. It’s always possible.
I believe God wants Christians to pray a very specific prayer: Pray for the conversion of Barack Obama out of Islam. Just that. Nothing more. Try that this Sunday. It should liven up your church service.
“God, I can’t do this!” Behind Enemy Lines, Vol. 2.
Media wishing to interview Craige McMillan, please contact [email protected].
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