We have a little girl at our congregation who has a standard answer to most questions. If you ask her and the other children who built the ark, her answer is “God.” If you ask who was in the ark, her reply is “God.” If you ask who is in Africa, she will say, “God.” Her answer to everything is God.
Such wisdom from the lips of a child! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if more adults would give this one-word response to problems and issues today?
What is wrong with this country? Everyone seems to have the answer, and they can talk for hours to explain it. Historians connect the dots and politicians point their fingers. The poor blame the rich and the rich blame each other. Everyone agrees that we are in serious trouble and each person knows how to fix it. In all the newscasts, talk shows, and podcasts you’ve heard, how many times is God even mentioned? You can get so overloaded with discussions about the economy, new legislation and international conflicts that you lose sight of the bigger picture. Christians need to study their Bible more and be leaders, not followers, in this time of confusion. We know the real problem; the world only thinks it does. People have forgotten God and we are paying the price. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34). “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psa. 9:17). Do we forget the hand of God in the affairs of nations and their governments? Have we focused so much on who is in office that we forget “the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men” (Dan. 4:17)? While the experts and commentators engage in endless arguments about the causes and the solutions to our national woes, we need to be strong enough to simplify matters. The answer is in one word: God.
Many families are in trouble—not so much financially, but morally and spiritually. More has been said and written in our time about how to find true love and how to have good relationships than at any age of our history. Yet never before have we seen such hatred and conflict. Our country is full of crime, child abuse, greed, divorce, pornography, laziness, adultery, homosexuality and perversions of every kind. There is no discipline at school, little incentive at the workplace, and a lack of respect everywhere. Hollywood has waged a 100-year war against marriage and the family and the damage has been worse than an atomic bomb. People don’t know the difference between males and females and claim to identify as animals. That’s not new. They have been living like animals for decades.
Righteous men and women have said all along that the problems in our society can be traced back to the home and its Designer: God. For thousands of years God has promised that things will go well in a nation if mothers and fathers and children respect God and obey Him. One of the Ten Commandments says, “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you” (Deut. 5:16). Paul cited these words and showed that they still apply today (Eph. 6:1-3). Psychologists and lawmakers can’t fix this mess. Famous entertainers and athletes make the situation worse with their ranting and raving. The only hope for our communities is godly homes and the only way to have them is through God.
When the chief priests and scribes heard children praising Jesus, they were furious. Jesus told them, “Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise’?” (Matt. 21:16). Sometimes we underestimate the profound insight that flows from the pure and honest hearts of children. Their minds are not cluttered and clouded with vain human wisdom like ours. Sometimes we fail to appreciate their simple way of seeing life. Instead of talking in circles like everyone else, it is time for us to get back to the core of the troubles everyone is worried about. Issues of right and wrong and questions about who we are and where we came from can be answered in one word—God.
-Kerry Duke
