My wickedness

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

If a person lives long enough on this earth, they will live through times like we are now experiencing.  Times when, if you are a Christian, you see clearly that the way has been cleared for The End.  The Rapture.  The Tribulation.  Times when it seems this must surely be the historic moment when it will all change.  Times that make us feel fragile and vulnerable, enraged and vengeful. 

These are times that drive us to FB posts, blogs and lunch room arguments about who is right and what America was, and is and what we fear or hope to become.

Today, I have a safe and lovely home.  The skies are bright, morning rains having cleared and breezes blow through the trees in my large back yard.  My dog lays on the back porch soaking in the warm sunlight, my husband will buy groceries from our well-stocked local Kroger and my boys have good jobs.  Today, then, is a day of prayer. I am not the one placed in the physical battle, oh how I thank God for the peace of my surroundings right now. 

As for those times like these, first you must understand that I am one of those Christians from paragraph one.  So I know that I know that I know that one day everything will indeed change as the world finally turns her face toward her final defiance of God.  This defiance ebbs and flows like the ocean's tide but is forever creeping closer and closer until it will become the tidal wave that destroys itself.  Or, for the Christian, it will be the spiritual flood that finally washes away all that is so corrupt in mankind.

These are serious moments in history.  There is an election pending, there is the mystical 2012 theology, there is the Middle East tension, the 9/11 anniversary...again the stage is set.  Is this the moment?  I don't know.  It has never really mattered, we are still praying and standing on the same word that David took into battle. 

As I meditate on the scripture above, it feels both global and personal.  I am guilty of the flag waving rhetoric that is anything but humble.  It isn't about Regan or Bush or the red, white and blue.  Forgive me Lord for waging my own war on behalf of America.  My attitude has been that we are the U.S.A. and we are coming to kick someone's head in.  There is no humility in that.  Should we rise or fall, it is by God's grace and his will alone.

I have been political instead of prayerful.

My wickedness has been absolute refusal to consider forgiveness of the 9/11 attackers and of the Bengazi strikes and of everyone who has raised a hand against our troops.  Forgive me God, and help me to forgive. 

And now, may God hear from heaven and heal our land.