As my wife and I drive the short distance to church on Sunday mornings, we pass a lot of busy neighbors. On any given week, there might be those who are getting their exercise walking or jogging gleefully up and down the street. It is not uncommon to find someone just inside his opened garage door, bent over his riding mower, car, or truck performing some necessary maintenance. We might have to swerve to keep from running over the heels of someone returning to their car from a yard sale. Another neighbor might be gathering up the last couple bags of leaves for the season. The parking lots of local businesses sometimes seem more stocked than the shelves inside, etc. For many reasons, most have forgotten that Sunday is “The Lord’s Day.”
I know, many of you are thinking, “Why doesn’t he mind his own business?,” but that’s my point—these people are my business. They are my neighbors, and here in America, we are supposed to concern ourselves with the welfare of our neighbors. Remember how the pilgrims displayed that “all for one” mentality and survived the first harsh winter at Plymouth Rock? Remember hearing about WWII when our nation pulled together as one, and with our allies, defeated the Nazi regime? And then, please recall, that feeling of patriotism and brotherhood that drew us together as a nation when we were attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001. People stood in lines for hours, without complaining, to offer their life’s blood for their injured neighbors.
So don’t be upset with me neighbor, when I say, I’m concerned for you. History is filled with examples of people and nations who forgot God. They are no more. As long as we are “one nation under God,” we will also be “indivisible,” but when God is forgotten, we are divided and vulnerable. Our faith in the God of the Bible is what made our country great and has sustained us through these many years. The answer to our national decline, and global unrest is not in some political strategy, because the godless cannot be governed. But the Bible says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. (Psalm 33:12)”