Hope and Headlines

When we open a newspaper or watch the news, we are assaulted with tragic story after depressing story. Many reports about America today are pessimistic, to say the least. Some news items involve national tragedies, such as plans for a mosque at Ground Zero, evangelists arrested for evangelizing in Michigan, or the current president's steady stride toward socialism (not to mention the flourishing national debt). Other news items are calamities in others' personal lives that don't involve us but move our pity: a police chief's son killed in a shoot-out with police, children harmed by those who should be caring for them, or any other unwise decision and its fatal consequences. It seems every headline is disheartening.

Headlines, however, aren't always reliable reporters. In 1776, the news wasn't any better. The only government the colonies had ever known - the British king - was refusing to acknowledge their basic rights. The colonies had tried in insist on their freedoms by committing small acts of civil disobedience. Now a group of visionary men were faced with the dilemma of committing the most defiant act yet: the signing of a document legally separating the colonies from the only government they had ever known. Thousands of the world's best-trained and best-supplied soldiers would assuredly soon be knocking on the door of the fledgling nation that had only a small (albeit dedicated) band of underpaid, undersupplied, undertrained men. It did not look good.

Despite the danger, fifty-six dedicated reformers still signed the important piece of paper. They knew the risks. This paper would cause war. The signers also knew that they would see their fair share of danger, discord, and shortages of necessities. However, there was something else they knew, too. "But where, say some, is the king of America? I'll tell you, friend: he reigns above," (Thomas Paine, Common Sense). The founding fathers of America knew that God is always on His throne. He is always working behind the headlines.

At first glance, things don't seem very promising in America today. More and more complaints with our government and the current administration are surfacing often. America faces daunting challenges - both from without (such as hostile countries with nuclear capabilities) and within: our own children murdered before they are born, our own religion silenced, our own heritage all but erased. Things don't look good for America.

But no matter the threat, no matter the headline, our hope is as firm as ever. "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God" (Psalm 20:7). Just as God was working in the past during the birth of a nation in the midst of tumultuous circumstances, so He is working in our present and in our future. No matter how menacing the future sometimes seems, God knows what it holds, and He holds us. Some rest their futures and safety in multi-billion-dollar defense systems, hefty retirement plans, or constitutional rights and government programs, but that is not so for Christians. While those are needed, we must realize that they can never assure our security. But even so, we have no cause for worry. No matter the threat, no matter the headlines, Christians can rest in the hope that we have, because as for us, IN GOD WE TRUST.