When I was a teenager, my dad helped me buy my first car. It was a 1965 Galaxy 500 and my dad, literally traded a cow for it. I remember getting it home and going right to work on it to make it something I would be proud to drive. My dad asked me if I wanted his help, but being a teenager, I turned down his offer and proceeded to begin to take all sorts of things apart to clean and replace them. I installed a new radio, bought fancy new hub caps, new seat covers and put a chrome air cleaner on it. But after working almost a week on it, it went from barely running to not running at all. I went to the store to buy new parts, thinking that I just needed to spend more money on things but soon realized that I didn’t really know what I was doing and was broke and only then was ready to admit that I needed my father’s help.
Our country, as much as I love it, sometimes reminds me of my attitude as a teenager, working on my car. We like tinkering with stuff, trying to fix things, always working on making it better by spending money on our 200 year old country, trying to get it to run. We sure like fancy programs, a comfortable interior and all sorts of stuff that makes us look cool. But we evidently don’t know what we’re doing and we’re almost broke.
Oh we think we know everything, after all, we’re educated. We think that only we can figure it out for the problems seem complicated. We won’t humble ourselves to ask for our Heavenly Father’s help because we are too sophisticated. And many refuse to ask for God’s help at all because they think they are uncreated.
I remember my dad politely asking if I wanted his help but after me telling him no, he quietly left me alone to learn my lesson the hard way. Our country, as much as God loves it, has been telling God no for quite some time and perhaps He is quietly leaving us alone to learn our lesson the hard way.
Does America need a stimulus package? Well yes, but not the type that politicians are talking about for it is nothing more than shiny hub caps and new seat covers. And while those things made my old car nice to sit in, it still didn’t run. The stimulus package that our country needs is old fashioned spiritual repentance. I see it work in the lives of individuals all the time. After someone is broke, either financially, emotionally or relationally, after they have tried everything that money can buy and listened to all of the world’s advice with no results, some humbly turn to their Heavenly Father who is ready to help them pick up the pieces and put things back together the right way. And our country is no different.
If our leaders would acknowledge their Creator, if they would humble themselves and repent, if our country would turn back to the Heavenly Father that gave us this land to start with and accept His loving guidance and kindness, we have a 100% guarantee from the Christian Scriptures that this land will be blessed once again.
Are our leaders too proud to call for a day of prayer to the Almighty God? Are we so stubborn that we will not bend a knee to show reverence to our Creator? Will we put feet to our faith and do something about it? I hope so! Otherwise, I hope everyone likes shiny hub caps!