PRESIDENT'S DAY RELIANCE

Last week the President gave us a proposed budget that even Treasury Secretary Geithner testified was unsustainable.  The lights we see are an oncoming train, but many people seem focused on either American Idol or whether someone else picks up the birth control tab.

How can concern over the economy be optional?  Doesn't the borrower become the lender's slave?

The administration expresses concern over the deficit, but keeps flashing the credit card.  And people keep cutting him slack, saying..."well, it was worse than we thought".  I guess if there is no budget accountability, there is no prahhh-blem.

On this President's Day, let's remember our country's first administration.  Know what President George Washington and both houses of Congress did after his inauguration?  Their first joint meeting was to pray in a little stone church after the inauguration at Federal Hall on Wall Street in NewYork City (our nation's temporary capital).  "On the morning of April 30, 1789, bells rang out in the nation's capital for 30 minutes, calling the people to go up to gather for prayer to commit the future into God's hands...at a place especially chosen for that purpose."  Their humble prayer was "Lord, help us".  And President Washington's said:


"It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes."

I had to read and reread that complex sentence to understand it; it's not exactly a sound bite.  But I do hear reliance on God.  Can we commit the time and energy to understand history...in order to learn from the ones who went before us?  Are we so arrogant to think we know better?

Today we are a nation divided.  There are fragments of black vs. white... rich vs. poor...bitter clingers to guns and religion vs. the more "broadminded"... the occupiers vs. the law-abiding...the union vs. non-union...proponents of nuclear armament vs. nuclear disarmament...and the environmentalists vs. the stewards who would not elevate creation above human need.

Ever wonder what God sees when He looks down?  Does He see us in groups?

A wise man once told me that God sees people in two groups...the humble and the proud.  People have either bent the knee and asked for forgiveness, or they hold tight to the reins while singing with Frank Sinatra, "I Did It My Way".

You don't have to be an Old Testament prophet to see destruction coming.  I cannot change the course set out by the president, but I can vote in November.  I cannot alter the course of history, but I can hold tight to the One who is able to turn the heart of a king like water.  Believing the phrase "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray"...I sense hope as believers get on their knees.

Our country should be sorry for the way we have regarded the Lord as optional in our nation's course.  We should tremble that we have put money above God.  We should feel dread because every year more than a million babies made in His image are aborted.  Our drift has taken us a long way from home.

It is time to call out to Him just as President Washington and that first Congress did...in humility.  "Lord, forgive us and help us come back to You."