As we begin a new year with a new administration, it will be helpful to consider where we're at as a people. January is not just a time for setting individual goals or resolutions, but a time for our nation to determine the direction it is going. You may say "But the nation already decided which direction it was going to go in November and earlier this month!" To that I would agree, but that doesn't mean things can't change course once a direction has been determined. You remember last year, right? No one saw that coming. What happened to your resolutions then?
So, where are we? What one word would you use to describe the state of our nation? Divided? The results of the election seem to support this except that we need an adverb to describe how divided we are. Fiercely divided, perhaps? What about volatile? We're more like a mound of TATP then a block of C4. One slight misstep and kablam! How about relieved? The last four years have been interesting to say the least, and I'm sure that some people are looking forward to a President without an active Twitter account and an inflammatory rhetoric.
Regardless of how you would describe the state of our nation, it is likely worse than you think and we are all complicit in making it so. We are like those cute kids on the America's Funniest Home Videos who discover the 10-lb bag of flour and decide to have a go, except that we're not cute and we're playing with something far more dangerous than flour, you know, things like freedom (of all kinds!), elections, morality, truth, etc.
How do we clean up the mess we've made? Well, it starts by recognizing that we've made the mess in the first place and that we can't clean it up when we're part of what needs cleaned up. How can the kid covered in flour clean up the flour scattered across the floor? In other words, it starts with confession. "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). We need to bring our sins out into the open and acknowledge them for what they are. All the skeletons need to come out of the closet. All the idols need to be cast out. Responsibility and ownership needs to happen. The father needs to clean the kid up and then make him help clean up the rest of the mess he made. Confession means to call a spade what God calls a spade.
Notice that our response is not just to confess, but also to forsake. This is repentance. We need to turn away from our sins. We need to avoid placing any skeletons back in the closet. We need to make sure we're not hoping in any false gods. If we do these things, then we will obtain mercy. We will receive God's pardon and his enabling power to turn from the mess we've made and to refrain from making a similar mess down the road.
This verse gives me hope. My hope is not in the nation to turn itself around, to move forward by its own power under a new regime. My hope is in the God who promises to give mercy to those who confess and forsake their sins. This is a good place to start any year, but especially this one. "May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope" (Romans 15:13). When God is the center of your life, then there are always reasons to be hopeful for the future. May he be so for you and for our nation.
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