“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live …” —Deuteronomy 30:19
Recently I drove my youngest granddaughter to the DMV where she was to take a test for a driver’s license permit. Since the DMV was located in a small town that was unfamiliar to me, I put the address in my GPS.
About three quarters of the way there, I took a wrong turn. As soon as I did, the voice from my GPS told me to make a U-turn as soon as possible, which I did. I was able to get back on the right road and arrive at the right place at the right time. All because I was willing to turn around when I took a wrong turn.
As I have watched our nation over the last few years, I am convinced we have taken many wrong turns and therefore we are on the wrong road and going in the wrong direction. As a result we are imploding into chaos, corruption, confusion and in the end, we will crumble onto the ash heap of history. Unless we turn around, we will never reach our destination of abundant life, liberty, and true happiness for all.
On the morning of Friday, June 24, the Supreme Court took a significant step in leading our nation to turn around when it overturned Roe vs. Wade. Six courageous justices chose life. I applaud their decision as a victorious first step for the well-being of our entire nation as we turn around from the federalized legalization of choosing death.
Every farmer knows that life is in the seed. Human life is no different. Life begins at conception. Period.
I am also heartened that SCOTUS upheld religious liberty when the same six justices decided the right of a former high school football coach, Joe Kennedy, to publicly pray on the field after a game. It seems ludicrous to think that he had been fired for doing so. While I respect separation of church and state, I believe in many instances it has been misused and applied in a way never intended, as though it means separation of state and God. The danger is that if we, as a nation, separate from God, He will separate Himself from us.
So … are we as a nation beginning to turn around?
The Biblical Old Testament prophet Hosea called on his nation to, “Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us; He has injured us but He will bind up our wounds.” God Himself echoed that call to turn around when He spoke through the prophet Joel, “Even now … return to Me with all your heart.” Even now … when there is rioting in the streets, churches burned, Life Care Centers fire bombed, with fear, anger, hatred, and divisiveness replacing civil discourse … even now, Joel exhorts, “Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing” (Joel 2:13-14).
In other words, if we return to God, He will return to us.
Turning around is another way of defining what it means to repent. The first word Jesus spoke when He began His public ministry was, “Repent.” Turn around. At Pentecost, when Peter was asked how a person could get right with God, he answered, “Repent.” Turn around.
At a very dangerous, critical time when we are looking at food shortages that includes lack of baby formula, skyrocketing gas prices, record breaking inflation, rising violent crime, nuclear threats from our enemies, and other crises, God has promised: “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn [turn around] from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and My ears attentive to [their prayers].”
It’s time, America, to turn around! Beginning with you and me.
