Who Knows?

Maybe it’s because I have reached my limit. Maybe you have too.

 

Maybe it’s because I can still vividly remember walking in the 1978 Memorial Day Parade in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, holding an American Flag alongside my Dad and his ambulance corps and feeling so proud of my nation.

 

Maybe it’s because we seem to be on a downward spiral and it seems less and less likely that we can turn around.

 

Maybe it’s because I believe a nation has a kind of soul and our nation’s soul is wounded and ill.

 

Maybe it’s because I have a daughter of a similar age.

 

But I can’t help but be so disturbed by the thought and reality of that little girl’s body found in the garbage dump after having gone missing recently.

 

Kids are supposed to be alive and walking home safely in their neighborhoods. Little girls should be swinging on the swing in the back singing Taylor Swift songs and writing and illustrating books with stick figures and backward letters.

 

But not for Somer Thompson, whose body was, as her father described, “discarded like a piece of trash.”  

 

I know this is not the first time it has happened…and it won’t be the last.

 

But it is a very startling metaphor – a young, innocent girl killed and dumped in the garbage. It screams of a people and a nation that do not value life. And we have known this for a while. It’s just a little more visible today.  

 

How can we say that we value life when we worship nearly everything else but the Author of Life? In God We Trust?

 

It’s more like – In…money, violence, sports, alcohol and drugs, possessions, sex, appearances, video games and ourselves…We Trust. You don’t need to be a person of faith to see where this has brought us and where it is going to lead.

 

The apathy doesn’t help either. Our apathy helps us drift off slowly, painlessly as we have watched our nation’s soul and many of the things of real substance disintegrate.

 

After hearing a message of warning from one of God’s prophets, a people of long ago began fasting. The king of those people was also moved by the message and said, “Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways, and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish (Jonah 3).”

 

And God’s response to those people? “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened (Jonah 3).”

 

What does God see when He looks upon America’s soul? What does God think of Somer Thompson’s body in a Georgia garbage dump?

 

Yet, God does see and respond to repentance and turning our hearts to Him. The people of Nineveh, which I mentioned above, did so, and God relented. He is after all, a God of second chances.

 

I know this is not a typical Living Water. I would have preferred to write something else. But I had to be obedient. As much as I love to talk about grace, it doesn’t take away from how much sin and evil still offend God.

 

And I am no king, but I couldn’t be silent today about how I see sin and evil corrupting our nation and how we have to turn from it – soon.

 

Let everyone in our nation call urgently on God and let us give up our evil ways and violence.

 

Who knows?

 

Amen.

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We Turn To You

We Turn To You  

O Lord!

 

When someone lets go of decades of pain and suffering and begin to move toward wholeness –

We turn to you and give thanks that healing is possible through you.

 

When our young people, despite our best efforts, lose their way and find themselves in all kinds of prisons –

We turn to you for the keys and the strength to believe in tomorrow.

 

When our young people are faced with temptations at school, on the Internet – virtually everywhere they go –

We turn to you and remember that they are your children first. 

 

When marriages reach the point where it seems like there is no hope –

We turn to you for patience and strength.

 

When marriages overcome obstacles of infidelity, neglect and the interference of others –

We turn to you and praise you for your faithfulness and grace.

 

When we become so tired and exhausted that we feel like we can’t go on –

We turn to you for strength and endurance.

 

When people become so isolated that they barely exist –

We turn to you and thank you for seeing us when we are invisible. 

 

When people come out from years of hiding in the shadows –

We turn to you and thank you for your persistence and steadfast love.

 

When we see that our sins have caused immeasurable damage throughout our lives –

We turn to you for second, third, fourth (and so on) chances; and know we have them in Jesus.

 

When we feel like we are unworthy and no longer acceptable to you –

We turn to you and feel the embrace of your grace and unconditional love in Christ.

 

When this whole world seems to be on the brink of falling apart –

We turn to you with whatever we have left.

 

When we see things falling apart and new things emerging like people coming together like never before –

We turn to you and praise you for being a God that restores and renews.

 

When our brothers, sisters and friends are diagnosed with terrible diseases –

We turn to you and cry out “Why?!”

 

When our ill brothers, sisters and friends are strengthened and sometimes even cured –

We turn to you and thank you for your mercy and providence.

 

When we have tried everything and it still doesn’t work –

We turn to you and throw our hands up in the air.

 

When we have surrendered all of our hopes and dreams to you –

We turn to you and watch them materialize in ways we never expected.

 

When we see our nation drowning in violence, self-indulgence and greed –

We turn to you for the life preserver of peace and satisfaction.

 

When we see our nation rich with compassion, abundance and hope –

We turn to you and thank you for the gift of being here.

 

When our loved ones die and we can’t hear their voice anymore –

We turn to you and say, “We wanted just one more time…”

 

When we leave this earth and enter in your presence –

We will turn to you and our loved ones and smile at that glorious reunion.

 

We turn to you in all of these days and times and remember your words and promises –

 

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:39

 

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

 

Discussion Questions

1. What can make the difference in how we view what is happening in our world?
2. How can we keep in mind that God is in control despite what it may look like?
3. What can we do about evil in this world? What is our response?
4. From where does our help and hope come? How can we keep that in mind during weeks like this?

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