Daily Broadside | How to Stay Calm Even as the Country is Wrecked by Our Leaders

Daily Verse | Exodus 33:11
The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.

Monday’s Reading: Exodus 35-37

Monday and one of my kids playfully asked me how she could have a good weekend after reading what I wrote on Friday. Truthfully, I’ve had the same thought at times: after laying out what we’re faced with in this country, isn’t it kind of cynical to wish someone a good weekend?

I don’t know how what I write lands on you, but I’m able to enjoy my weekend after surveying the wreckage that our ruling class is visiting on us a nation for one main reason. First and foremost, above all else, I trust that Jesus is who he said he is and that he will do what he said he will do.

I make no apology for believing that. I don’t minimize it, excuse it or dissemble about it. He is my hope, not Brandon. Or Trump, for that matter.

Jesus is the answer to every question that mankind has ever posed, including what is going on in the United States and around the world right now.

In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darknessand the darkness has not overcome it. —John 1:1-5

Nobody knows what’s going to happen in the future, either distant or immediate. Not you, not me, not anyone but God. The worst thing we can do is worry about it, since we can neither know what will happen nor control it. That’s something Jesus taught us in the gospel of Matthew.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. —Matthew 6:34

The word translated as “worry” literally means to be divided or to be distracted. In the context of Matthew 6, Jesus is saying that God knows our material needs and that we should prioritize pursuing him first, and the material needs will follow; therefore, we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be divided or distracted in where we put our attention.

That doesn’t mean we can’t be curious or concerned about what we see taking place around us in terms of civic order and a safe society. When God sets up rulers (see Romans 13:1-7) they are expected to govern according to the laws of God. When they don’t, they are being untrue to their responsibilities as “God’s servants.”

I don’t know about you, but it’s clear to me that those God has placed in authority to govern this nation are not staying in their given lanes. Are they governing according to the laws of God? By and large they are not. They are immersed in deceit, grift, and immoral lawmaking. They are steadily bringing citizens under their control and demanding that we follow their dictates, no matter how they violate human norms, constitutional rights or the moral order God provided.

And that’s because they don’t fear God and they don’t respect the rights of We the People in the United States of America.

This blog is my attempt to call attention to the ways in which our governing elite are being untrue to the established law of the land and the ultimate laws of God. You and I can call it what it is, pray intelligently about it, then leave it in his hands without allowing it to become an unhealthy preoccupation.

With that in mind, let’s have a good week.