If My People…

I remember 9/11. Never in most of our lifetimes had we experienced such a dark time of sadness and fear. We were on high alert, wondering what horrific events might follow. 

After the shock of it, all I could think of was 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven, forgive their sins and heal their land.”

We as a Nation were definitely guilty of turning our collective backs on God. Abortion laws were out of control. Laws were enacted to redefine marriage. Euthanasia was embraced as an end of life option. And the beauty of God’s design in creating us male and female was replaced with an embracing of alternative lifestyles. If God were to intervene as He did in Sodom and Gomorrah, we were ripe for it. 

In fact, the entire world had succumbed to views and policies that offend God. In many countries there have been volcanoes, tsunamis, and any number of natural and man-made disasters. Did any of those countries seek God as the solution to the grave ills of their own Nations?

When I shared those thoughts with people after 9/11, I was accused of being an alarmist and an extremist. “God wouldn’t do something like that,” I was told. Yet for a while, churches were filled as people entertained the thought that God might be the answer. There was a short time of pulling together…a very short time. Then it went back to complacent business as usual. Instead of looking inward to identify and remedy our sins, we made President Bush the scapegoat. After he followed certain Intel (some of which turned out to be unreliable) to try and root out the evil that attacked us, there was a very loud Liberal voice that drowned out all who disagreed. Thus, we were set up for years of progressive leadership that pulled us further into the abyss. 

Fortunately, 2016 offered respite in an unlikely leader. Donald Trump, a hard-nosed business man with a brash personality and a less-than-perfect past, brought hope back to a Nation fraught with moral and economic problems. In his short four years, Trump turned us back toward prosperity and a moral core. He not only invoked the Almighty, but did more for the unborn than any other president. He quickly became hated by the Left, and they launched a full-blown attack on him. All attempts were squelched. But another danger loomed that even Trump could not hold back.

Fast-forward to the plague of COVID-19. In contrast to 9/11, notice that God even took away our ability to gather at church for quite some time. Sacraments were denied. The comfort of family and friends was ripped away by despotic governments. Maybe this new viral threat was meant to be another Divine judgement because of our failure here and in the world to turn to Him not only in times of crisis, but when times are good. We here in the US didn’t appreciate how God rescued us from a radical direction by giving us a leader who embraced life…and a Godly First Lady. Instead, they were put under a microscope for past sins. And so perhaps God removed His Hand of protection in the 2020 Election. 

Now, here we are in an era of ‘tolerance’ that has thrust us into deeper decay. Black Lives Matter made it socially acceptable to commit heinous crimes. ‘Gender fluidity’ has made it a hate crime to call a biological male ‘he’ if he erroneously claims to be a ‘she’ (or some other fabricated non-sensical pronoun.) People who want to preserve Constitutional rights over their own bodies are publicly humiliated as being part of the Pandemic of the Un-vaxxed, turning neighbor against neighbor and brother against brother. Employers fire those who will not comply with this insane stand. And we now live under a near-dictatorship nationally and in many states. Yet there are glimmers of hope and direction. 

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone asked the Faithful weeks ago to pray specifically for Nancy Pelosi and her conversion. Now, suddenly, there is a rumor of her retirement in 2022. Perhaps this is an answer to those prayers by removing her from doing any further harm.

And then there is talk of Newsom’s possible vaccine booster injury. Though not substantiated, could something like this set the wheels in motion for another answer to prayer: that God reach the hearts of leaders to reverse their tyrannical strongholds? Only time will tell.

I only know one thing: God is sovereign over all. He puts rulers over us to accomplish His Will…even despotic ones. We as a Nation and World can ignore it. We can deny it. We can shake our fists in anger. But none of that will change the one remaining Truth that God is over all.

We stubborn, stiff-necked people need to be less full of ourselves (as prior to and after 9/11) and learn from 2 Chronicles that the only remedy for our Nation and the World is submission to God, the one True Authority. We must cry out in humble recognition of His rightful place in our hearts and in our world…HIS world!

Pray. Seek His face. Turn from all wickedness. Then wait for God to hear us and heal our land. 

We need to get it right this time.