As we close out the first decade of the 21st century there is nothing too encouraging to contemplate. Pat Buchanan wrote an article describing our present economy to our economy ten years ago. In 2000 the U.S. produced 32% of the world’s gross domestic product. By the end of the decade we produced only 24% of the world’s gross domestic product. In 2000 the economy was in full employment, now we are 10% unemployed. Somewhere between ¼ and 1/3 of our manufacturing jobs have gone overseas. While median income for families remained the same (not a good thing) our national debt doubled! The dollar lost half of its value to the euro. We owe our soul to the Chinese government and they are becoming impatient because we haven’t started paying back what they’ve lent us.
All of this happened in the last decade, most of which was under the administration of George W. Bush. The dot com bubble burst in 2000 and the decade ended with the bursting of the housing bubble. Two simultaneous wars have drained us while we continue to develop more and more entitlement programs that we’ll have to borrow from China in order to finance.
Ten years later we are now fighting Al Qaida in Afghanistan although they now take up residence in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and other northern African countries. Americans have believed that America is too strong to fall. Most of us now realize that we are the only ones who now believe that. Our enemies are inspired by weak leadership, indecisiveness and confusion in the White House. “W” certainly had his problems but at least we felt safe. We lost 13 innocent lives at Fort Hood and nearly lost hundreds more in Detroit recently. Our Homeland Security and our White House failed miserably to protect us. It’s troubling that our president is playing golf in Hawai’i while terrorists attack the country he leads and ‘loves’.
Our government seems to be ‘Obumbling’ along like a bull in a china shop, destroying everything it touches. No one in the Congress seems interested in or capable of balancing our books. We haven’t been able to win a war in fifty years. We obstinately or mysteriously refuse to protect our borders. We’ve sold our soul to China and we are more interested in passing out goodies to gullible voters to get reelected rather than do what is necessary to preserve the soul of a great country.
There is much reason for discouragement. Some are asking ‘Oh, what will God do without American?’ Don’t fall off your chair…God will be just fine without America. He will go somewhere else to reveal his glory. His plan will be realized with or without America. He will be glorified in China, in Israel, in Africa, in Korea. An all powerful, all sovereign God doesn’t need America but America surely needs him!
The greatest question is ‘Can the decline of America be reversed?’ If God’s plan is to lift this nation again as the ‘light on a hill’ then count on it, the decline will be reversed. Know this for certain, with or without us, God will be glorified and his name will be honored among all nations. What greater way to reveal his mercy and power than to take a wayward nation like ours and revive it! God always shines brightest in our darkest hours.
2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
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