Where Do We Go From Here?

What in the world is happening? We were all hoping that 2020 would end and the stupidity, division and fear that it brought would end as the ball lit up on New Year’s Eve. We hoped that 2021 would bring change. That different would come. Well we got change. We got different so now what?

As a culture we’re bent on violence and destruction. Yes both sides of the aisle. All of us will gravitate to our version of right and wrong. We’ll side with the people who express our views most clearly. We’ll find wrong in the people who look different than us. We’ll condemn those who don’t react the way want them to react. But really? Is this the world we want to hand to our children?

Where do we go from here?

In 2020 men and women who were upset with the way they were treated rioted in the streets and burned down homes. They killed people in broad daylight as their means of protesting. As the calendar changed to a new year, we were met with another group who didn’t like the answer they received and gave into the temptation to move from a protest to a riot. Neither are right. Neither are American. Neither depict being one nation, under God, indivisible.

This country is not perfect. We have broken leadership on both sides of the aisle. The very ones calling for peace today were silent when violence destroyed cities across America this summer. Those who are silent today decried the violence all year. You can’t have it both ways.

You can’t destroy the lives of men and women, terrorize their families, and burn down people’s livelihoods. You can’t sit idly by until the story line shifts to your agenda then start to speak. But honestly where do we go from here? Can this whole thing be redeemed?

The short answer is yes and no.

No, we can’t change what happened. We can’t change the devastation wrought on our country by thugs and evil doers whether in the summer months through racial riots or last night in political ones. Whether they are organized in movements or in ad-hoc groups of people or just proposed random acts of violence – it all is downright evil and we need to stand up for what is right.

Where do we go from here? To be honest there is only one way to fix what’s broken. And it’s going to sound cliche to say the very least. The answer is prayer. Now before you write me off as some bible thumping right wing pastor who’s trying to capitalize on this moment give me a second.

When we pray in a moment like this, there’s no room for blame. When we pray in a moment like this there’s no earthly savior to whom we can pledge our allegiance. In prayer we bend to the ground. In prayer we humble ourselves. In prayer we don’t see one man or woman as better or worse than another. In prayer we are the broken, we are the problem and we can be the solution.

Prayer is the act of bending our will to God’s plan. On January 20, 2021 we will witness the inauguration of the next president of this nation. Some of you will be elated because you think this man will save America and unite this people. Some of you will be upset that your guy didn’t get in. Well let me tell you something. Neither one will do anything that God doesn’t allow him to do. Your “guy” won’t save America.

So what’s the answer? Where do we go from here? Down, on our knees and pray. We need to stop the finger pointing and starting the hand folding. We need to stop looking at our neighbors like they’re the enemy and love them like they’re people too. The only answer now is prayer. Not a prayer to have your man become president. If you pray that prayer you’ve missed the point! The prayer we pray is for God’s will to be done no matter what we think.

So friends put on the knee pads and pray. Get down and humble yourself. Stop throwing social media bombs at one another and I told you so’s and he could have done better or she would have handled this differently. You’re just as much the problem as those who tried to burn our country down this past 12 months.

What part did you play in the problem? Where did you not love your neighbor? Where did you fail to see someone different than you as your brother or sister? What can you do better to fix the little slice of the world in which you live? Pray for that.

Where do we go from here? Simple! Prayer!