In light of recent events and the holiday before us, I am compelled to ask where your faith is. Maybe you’ve got a tree up and decorated with plans to have family and friends over to celebrate Christmas. Maybe you’re ahead of the crowd and have all of your shopping done and out of the way. But where is your faith? Maybe your faith is in family, trusting that each member will get along and not spoil the revelry with personal grievances or offensive behavior. Maybe your faith is in the past and your ability to resurrect the memories and sentiments of holidays gone by. For others, faith might lie in a legacy of little ones who represent their hope for a brighter future. “Christmas is for kids”, they say. Tell me, is THAT where your faith is?
It goes without saying that these are trying times here in America. There have been a lot of strange and unfamiliar emotions processed by one and all since the towers fell in New York. One of those emotions is raw fear. As we witnessed two of the most visible and symbolic pillars of our economic well-being crumble before us, we became less confident in the overall security of our nation’s financial structure. The tears and smoking rubble that filled the television screen for weeks persuaded many to reevaluate their priorities and prepare for a more turbulent and uncertain future. In spite of President Bush’s call to shop our troubles away, the linear thinkers that had been promising us all along that the good times would never end have since grown conspicuously silent. Some contend that if only Mr. Greenspan would lower the prime interest rate ONE MORE TIME we’d all be back in the chips and on the road to recovery. Maybe THAT’S where your faith is.
The President called on our military to defend us after that terrible event in September and virtually overnight we all became warriors or wannabes, ready and willing to do our part to save America from the Taliban. Flags went up, speeches were made, prayers were prayed, songs were sung, soldiers were sent, planes flew and bombs fell. “God Bless America” became our new theme and confidence in our resolve to retaliate was the designated doctrine of divine deliverance from all that was evil in the world. But is THAT where YOUR faith is…in a president, a flag, a prayer, a soldier, a song or a bomb?
Many who had never owned a firearm in their life rushed out to buy their first, sensing somehow that the enemy was drawing near. A good night’s sleep, we thought, would surely come easier knowing a gun was tucked away nearby. Maybe your faith rests in the top drawer of that bedside table beside you.
Bibles, churches and religion in general also became fashionable again after the televised tragedy. Even liberal celebrities and politicians were seen lighting candles, holding hands and evoking the name of one god or another for all to see…at least until the credits rolled and all the contributions were in. If sinners were saved by fundraising, I do believe we could have called the WTC aftermath a revival. But unfortunately, fundraising is not faith-raising, in spite of the sincerity behind it or the steeples towering over it.
It’s going to take a politically incorrect faith in the “only begotten Son of God” to win the REAL war on terrorism and see the world as it really is…a chaotic aftermath of smoking rubble and confusion created by the rebellion of unrepentant sin. We Americans may think we’re all patriots and freedom fighters blessed by the Almighty to conquer evil here and abroad, but I assure you, that unless our faith is placed solely in the saving grace of Jesus Christ, in His eyes we’re nothing more than terrorists ourselves.
“He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.” (Luke 11:23)