Pastor Charlie Rousey
I grew up in a time before smartphones or video games, so I had to be very creative to keep from getting bored. One summer, my friends and I decided to chain a wooded sheet to the back of a three-wheeler and hang on for dear life while being dragged through the woods. We stuffed our clothes with padding and wore helmets, but nothing could protect us from what was to come. The more we yelled for my friend to stop, the faster he went. I remember how out of control we were going through the woods and how sore we were for the next few days. This was one of the reasons I had my wife stay home to supervise my children as they grew up.
In the last few weeks, I have felt the chaos around our nation, and it reminds me of my tree-hitting ride. I hear the demands of the crowd, and I am amazed at their demands and the utter chaos that would follow if their demands were met. If my mother had come home from work early and saw what I was doing, she would have stopped everything and punished me. I look at many of our leaders, and I am not seeing them stop the chaos but in many cases, they are encouraging it.
Proverbs 21:1 tells us, “The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” I have spent may summer days fishing on a riverbank and watching the waters as they turn. Our nation has taken a course that is taking God out and replacing Him with chaos. Let our prayer be in the coming months that God does direct the hearts and minds of our leaders. That He guides and steers them back into a place where our nation has peace and there is unity once again.
I do know that if healing is to be a part of our future, God will have to work in all of our hearts. Let’s ask Him this week to search our hearts and reveal to us what is there and to change the direction of our nation by changing the hearts of those that lead us.