Draw a Line in the Sand
Don’t bury your head in it!
You don’t need me to tell you that a lot has been going on in our world as of lately. I can’t even believe how many crazy things since 2020 has thrown our way. One of those things being a huge spike of the polarization in this country. Some would say we are on the brink of a civil war.
Polarization: NOUN 1. division into two sharply contrasting groups or sets of opinions and beliefs.
I wish we were just talking about the tint on sunglasses or the orientation of the vibrations of a light wave, but sadly, I am talking about the state our nation seems to be finding itself in. We can blame it on the elections or covid or whatever, but truth is, it has been going on for much longer than that. It seems to be at near boiling point now and in my opinion America needs a wake up call and a return to God.
We just passed the 18th year since the tragic September 11th terrorist event that shook everyone to the core in 2002. I remember the fear and the vulnerability that fell on all of us across the U.S., across the world. One thing that stood out to me, is that in that moment of tragedy and uncertainty, people were generally more forgiving, more intentional with their lives, more thankful, more willing to come to God and fall to their knees and cry out in prayer. Suddenly many of our other problems seemed petty in the wake of this attack on our country. There was unity where there had been disagreement and people really came together in the commonality of humanity and a desire to hold on to what was dear to all of us. Our freedom, our safety, our families and our brotherly love for our neighbor and the greater good. Pride had fallen back, humility shone its great light once again and priorities were realigning themselves. And then it stopped.
Slowly, things got back to a new normal. Distance of time removed us from the raw hard feelings of the immediacy of that day and we slid back into our selfishness, our pride and many pulled away from the God who they had previously cried out to in need and rededication. Little by little we have let hate take over in our hearts as a people.
People point fingers, blame shift and make it all about calling out the right, the left, the racist, the bigot. We hide behind social media and say whatever crosses our mind after whatever media we’ve allowed to become our truth at the expense of hurting others who think differently than us. What is truth anyway? Is there any such thing as unbiased, unfiltered facts anymore? Was there ever? We are a people filled with doubt, with fear, with opinions about everything and common decency is a thing of the past. We squabble about everything and everything in between that.
We need to bring unity back and we need to be one nation under God again! True unity only comes through orienting our lives toward the One who can unite us no mater our differences, and because of them. How is that going to happen you ask? We need an awakening. We need to be shaken to our core. We need to fall on our knees in humility and admit that we cannot do it on our own. We need God.
It will start with the Christians. Those who have been saved by His grace and have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of them. Jesus left us with this most important command in Matthew 22: 37-39, “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Love is giving. It can take many forms:
Giving of your time, your talent and your resources to help and bless others.
Giving kindness and a smile is always a must.
Being the hands and feet of Jesus and being willing to be used of Him is our mission. We need to live uncommon to the culture around us and go above and beyond the bare minimum. Giving with more intentionality in our families, with our co-workers, our peers, our communities and neighborhoods.
We need to shine His light and be ready to give our testimony of the goodness of God in our own lives. Not in a preachy and condescending way, but in a way that shouts how good and loving our God is and restore their hope in Him.
When we can spread God’s love, then people will become united in their common mission to live as His disciples. For His glory.
It’s time to draw a line in the sand. No more can we sit back and be idle. We cannot stay locked up in our house or in the safe four walls of our churches, but we need to take Christ out into the world. Our land needs revival.
“...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
