Don't Leave God out of It

Disclaimer: I feel led to post this.  I'm not being judgmental.  I'm not pointing fingers.  I just think that prayer is our best answer. 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..."- The Declaration of Independence

I've grown up in a society with television. Major events happened live.  I can remember when the Challenger exploded on National TV.  I can remember seeing footage of the Berlin Wall falling.  Images of airplanes flying into buildings are imprinted in my head. 

Add in the social media, and you often feel like you're right at an event, even watching from home.  How accurate our news coverage is, that's at times debatable.  Even when trying to be objective, it's hard...

Today, I sat in my Mom's living room and watched the Presidential Inaugurational Ceremony.  I'm ashamed to say that even though I was raised in a society of television, it's the first one I ever watched.  I am humbled by our freedom, by the opportunites available, but I am also adult enough to understand that America is far from perfect.

An invocation by Myrlie Evers-Williams, wife of Medgar Evers, seemed fitting... as a widow, she knows the price paid for freedom and equality.  However, I held my breath as she repeated words familiar to all Americans, memorized at a young age and said with one hand over my heart.  "One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all..." Anybody catch what was missing?  As she closed, in Jesus's name, I breathed again... because I feel how close we are as a nation to tipping over the edge.  We NEED God.  We NEED Jesus's name. 

I am no politician.  I don't even follow politics.  I'm not interested in it at all.  I'm one of those  bury your head in the sand type of people.  Regardless of whether you support the candidate or not, he's still our President.  And he needs our prayers. 

Fitting that today's ceremony was held on Martin Luther King Day.  If anyone believed those words in the Declaration of Independence, it was him.  He believed it through his words.  He believed it through his actions.  I believe that all men are created equal as well.  I believe that in the words of our forefathers, it is self-evident.  You can look at us and see we are made in a common image, regardless of whether we are black or white or male or female or rich or poor.  We are all made in one image... the image of our Creator. ALL are created equal.  We all have unalienable rights.... life.  Liberty.  The Pursuit of Happiness. 

and that includes Christians.  Sometimes, I feel under attack in my own country... but maybe that's a sign that I'm doing things right?  That if I'm showing Jesus, then what He said was true, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it has hated me first." John 15:18

Yet Jesus died for the world... showing love at the last. And as a Christian, that's our job, too.

Confusing? Yes.  Difficult?  Absolutely.  But if America is going to continue to be who She has been in the past, it is imperative that we bind together.  I've heard people say when arguments, "Leave so and so out of this... that has nothing to do with it."  I'm begging you today... Let's not leave God out of it.  Because we need Him... and His grace is sufficient even when our world seems topsy-turvy.