Happy Birthday, America!

Today America is 240 years old – a milestone worth celebrating.  But when it comes to other nations and cultures, we are quite young.  Traveling outside of the United States puts some of this in perspective, and I have had the opportunity to see the ruins of cultures in several countries that are hundreds and thousands of years old.  Some failed, and some still exist; but there hasn’t been a perfect society yet.

Yes, our founding fathers had a good idea and went to great lengths to implement that idea in the best way they envisioned.  They didn’t all agree on how to do that, and there were many fights and political moves even in the 1700’s and early 1800’s when our nation was forming.  And I am thankful for the freedoms I enjoy in this country.  But, regardless of their efforts, the sin nature inherited by all humans in the fall that took place in the Garden of Eden was and will always be present until Christ returns and establishes his new heaven and new earth.  Like all human societies that came before us, America is not perfect and never has been.

I have lived through nearly half of the 20^th century and all of the beginning of this century, and a tremendous amount of things have changed in my lifetime.  I remember living near the ocean as a young child and parking on the mesa above the water to watch the 4^th of July professional fireworks.  From my childlike perspective, it was a fun time.  At the risk of sounding old, it really was a more innocent and simpler time in our nation’s history.  Right or wrong, the social mores of my childhood kept some of society’s worst (according to God’s standards) in check and guaranteed that most of its citizens lived a more similar lifestyle than they do today.

But then almost everything changed as we moved through the 1960’s and 1970’s – which opened the door for every person and every group in our country to demand its own rights and endeavor to exercise its own freedom whether at the expense of others or not.  Forty to fifty years later, the worst of society is not only no longer in check, but they are the ones who are actually leading the nation!  Through the past few years, I have found it increasingly difficult to remain patriotic.  I want to celebrate what America used to be; but I cannot fully celebrate what we have now become.

We are a post-Christian nation, and those of us who are Christians would do well to recognize this and stop expecting God to continue to bless us as a country.  Yes, God is still present here, because there are many of his people still here.  But we cannot claim Bible verses for our nation that were meant for the people of Israel in Old Testament times just because we believe that America was founded on Christian principles.  Many other passages in the Bible make it clear that God will not tolerate continuous sin or nations/people groups that intentionally choose to walk away from his principles.  As much as I want our nation to return to God, I fear it is too late in many ways; we have simply moved too far away from what pleases God (which he has made clear in his Word never changes – regardless of how “enlightened” we feel we have become).  Individual Christians CAN make a difference where they live, but we must do it with a different approach than the politicians and activists around us who have been winning the war.  Shouting on social media and expecting everything to return to the way it was 240 years ago just isn’t effective.

Of one thing I am sure: No politician or political party or specific laws or repeal of laws holds any hope for our nation.  Only God can bring about the type of change that will allow America to continue as a country with the ability to influence other countries in a positive way.  That’s because only God can effect changes of the heart; and only heart changes make a difference that is of eternal value.  On this 4^th of July, I’m praying . . . not for a particular politician or political party to come out on top, not for a return to Puritan values or the destruction of those who disagree – but for God to be the center of the lives of American Christians and for their behavior wherever they go to reflect his Lordship in their lives.  Only when we consistently model Christ’s perfect balance of all of God’s attributes (regardless of our current circumstances or the prevailing political climate) will we provide the atmosphere God needs to be able to work in our nation for his glory.  Then we’ll truly have a reason to say, “Happy Birthday, America”!