Moaning or Moving

   Right at the end of the reading for today, in Psalm 18, is a verse that reads:

   "The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me."


   That can be a scary verse when I stop to really think about it. Do I want God to deal with me on this basis? I know myself and my thoughts, my motives and my actions, and I have to exclaim like Isaiah:

   "Woe is me".

   Then I think of all the celebrations surrounding yesterday, all the hoopla about America, its founding and its strength. Then there is all the moaning about how we are going downhill at such a rapid pace, how people are not living like they should, how politicians are out for their own good, how the moral climate is causing God's hand to be withdrawn from our nation, and then the verse from II Chronicles 7 comes to mind:

   " if my people, who belong to me,  humble themselves, pray, seek to please me,  and repudiate their sinful practices,  then I will respond  from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land."

   God says, if my people will do this. His people bear the responsibility, both as to the withholding of God's blessing and the restoration of it, and I am included in both of these actions.

   So, if God says that He will deal with me according to my righteousness and the cleanness of my hands, and, in the same way, He deals with The United States of America how scary is that?

   Today is July 5, 2012 and the parades are gone, the fireworks are but a memory and the grand oratory only a passing thought. I may live in the shadow of the greatness of our past, but my responsibility is the present and the building of the future.

   Will I wring my hands and quote Isaiah when he says, "Woe is me", or Todd Beamer, as he said on September 11, 2001, "Let's Roll"?