Saturday, March 6, 2010

A Strange Dream About Our Country

"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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;" - Thomas Jefferson

Last night I had a dream that Americans were all holding hands in prayer around the perimeter of our country. Some people that were holding hands in Louisiana suddenly let go and stopped praying for our country. The moment that the prayer chain was broken, bad things started happening, beginning with the hurricane that struck the very spot where the prayer chain was first broken.

This dream jogged my memory about the days of Moses. When he encountered a fierce enemy, his job was to raise his hands to Heaven and pray. When his arms were up, his people had the upper hand. When he grew weary and lowered his arms, the enemy would gain strength. At one point, Moses was so tired that two people had to hold up his arms. The people knew that they could only claim victory when the people acknowledged who was in charge.

The good people of Louisiana are not responsible for what happened when the hurricane struck but my dream was a warning about the consequences we face for turning away from God and failing to keep Him number one in our lives.

Our school children are not allowed to raise their arms to God in prayer as Moses did when facing an enemy. In fact, prayer is not even allowed for Christians who want to arrive early to pray. We allow exceptions to Muslim children who ask to pray during school hours while we bar access to Jesus for Christian school children. What happened to our Constitution which states that all men are created equal? Do we not see our leaders lowering their arms? How many references to God are we going to remove from our money, our public buildings, and our schools before we realize that we will face serious consequences?

The bright note for us is that Hollywood is filling a void. Americans are looking for hope and we are spending millions of dollars to watch movies with themes of hope. Some argue that this is because Church attendance is down and we are searching for new places to find hope. Hollywood is only responding to our thirst for these types of movies because of the profit motive.

When my oldest son was in a seventh grade religious education class, his teacher asked, "Does anyone know what a prophet is?" My son quickly raised his hand and responded, "it is what is left over after you subtract expenses from revenue." Fewer children are learning about prophets and our Bibles are gathering dust on the shelves. Our politicians are quietly removing God from our lives.

My hope for our country is that we do not let prayer disappear. Lets show respect to people of all faiths without giving up our own rights. Lets remind our politicians that "Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." If they do not hear our voices, it may be time for another tea party. As long as we have prayer, we have hope.

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