March 2026 - Hard Days as an American

Unless you’re living in the middle of the woods with no access to outside communication, it’s hard these days as an American not to feel discouraged and afraid.  Every day we see footage of wars, impending wars, civil unrest between criminals and police, and high and increasing crime rates. Illegal drug use and deaths by overdose continue to mount.  Nearly half of all marriages end in divorce; almost half of all newborns are born to unwed mothers; and we continue to abort about 1 million babies a year.  The gap between rich and poor continues to grow.  Young adults complain of unaffordable housing, crushing student debt, and shrinking job opportunities. Our political leaders appear to have no concern for their own constituencies. Trust in government, media, and even our education system is at an all-time low.   We are bombarded with social media data, much of it biased, or worse, generated by artificial intelligence posing as a real person.  We are no longer “one nation under God.”
Rather, we have become many tribes, each with their own gods, and all at war with the others.  The enemy is at the gate. What is a Christian to do.

I imagine the first disciples felt exactly the same way those first few days after his death, discouraged and afraid.  Their rabbi, the master, did not turn out to be the hoped-for messiah who would rid the land of the hated Romans. Instead, they ignominiously hung him on a cross to die.  Instead of sitting at the right and left hands of the king, they were being hunted by the Jewish religious authorities and the Roman government.  It seemed like all was lost. They had been deceived like so many before them by another false messiah. Society mocked them as fools and simpletons.

But wait!  What is this we see and hear? He is risen! How can this be? Could it be that he is part of the Godhead he claimed to be all along? And he instructs us to go and make other disciples as he did with us. His final assurances, his presence that we saw and felt, the Holy Spirit that he left behind, all these gave them (and us) hope to endure any trouble this world throws at us, even to the point of death as a martyr.  I pray that such a thing never happens to Christians again, but the point is that this world is passing away.  It has nothing good to offer us, and nothing bad in it can harm our eternal destiny. Our hope is in a better future sitting at the feet of God, with no more pain, no more sorrow. Rejoice and be glad.

Pastor David