Prayer
Excerpted from Shoulder to Shoulder #198
I just got the following message Saturday from a friend, and thought I’d
pass it on to you as well. How crass and calloused can an American citizen
be!!!
“As our nation tries to heal … as we seek justice … and as we continue to
pray for our country’s leaders, military, and grieving families … I say
‘GOD BLESS AMERICA.’ It’s the simplest, most honest, most heartfelt phrase
we’ve heard since September 11. And yet, astonishingly – the ACLU has
objected to it and tried to censor its use.
“During this time of crisis, the ACLU has even had the audacity to threaten a
lawsuit in one recent case. ‘God Bless America’ went up on a sign outside
Breen Elementary School in Rocklin, California … and the ACLU contended it
communicated ‘a hurtful, divisive message’!
“In a letter to the school, the ACLU said that ‘God Bless America’ is a
‘violation’ of the U.S. Constitution – and ‘must be replaced immediately’!
An ACLU attorney called the phrase ‘a religious message’ and said that the
school is “dividing its young students along religious lines” … ‘hurting’
and ‘isolating’ the school children!
“How can this beloved phrase – words that have resounded through our history
as a cry of encouragement and freedom – in any way threaten our children?
The ACLU says that displaying ‘God Bless America’ ‘implies’ that ‘only
students who share the faith are truly patriotic.’ ACLU’s attacks on the
very spirit of our nation are absurd! THEY ARE ATTACKING YOUR FREE SPEECH!
It’s incredible – especially since ‘God Bless America’ is actually
CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED SPEECH. And yet, such attacks are actually
happening all over our country….
“- A Parent Teachers Association president in Illinois created and
distributed a flyer inviting students to wear red, white and blue to school.
The district demanded she cut off ‘God Bless America’ from each flyer
before children took them home!
“- In Oklahoma, one community is in uproar because the school district had a
sign removed from the front of a school. The supposedly offending message?
‘God Bless America’!
For more information, you can contact the American Center For Law and Justice
at http://aclj.com .
In case you hadn’t heard, the school district in Madison Wisconsin just last
week outlawed the public pledge of allegiance to the American flag . . . .
simply because it contains the phrase, “one nation under God” to which a
handful of parents and students objected. Wonder what they did this past
Friday while the rest of America pledged allegiance to the “flag of the
United States of America and to the country for which it stands”? I
suspect, if you look hard enough, you could find a web site or e-mail
address for the school board there.
THINGS HAVE CHANGED:
The author of Ecclesiastes said it well . . . . “There is an appointed time
for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven . . . to
give birth and to die . . . . to plant and to uproot . . . to kill and to
heal . . . to tear down and to build up . . . to weep and to laugh . . . to
mourn and to dance . . . to throw stones and to gather stones . . . to
embrace and to shun . . . to search and to give up . . . . to keep and to
throw away . . . to tear apart and to sew together . . . to be silent and to
speak . . . to love and to hate . . . for war and for peace.” (3:1-8)
He continues in verse 11 by saying, “[God] has made everything appropriate
(beautiful) in its time. He has also set eternity in [man’s] heart, yet so
that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning
even to the end.”
So, indeed things have changed. Times have changed. And much of it, as the
writer said, we certainly don’t understand . . . . we still see things
through that clouded veil. Yet, we are not the same, and we will never be
the same . . . . I hope.
Recently I ran across the following quote made soon after September 11th by
Henry Blackaby:
“As we have all noticed, much of America is making major adjustments in light
of the tragic events of September 11. Congress has made major adjustments.
Democrats and Republicans have made major adjustments. Our military is
undergoing major adjustments. The airlines, other businesses, state and
local governments as well are responding to all that has happened.”
And, he’s absolutely right. In fact, last month Max Lucado wrote the
following in response to the cry of many for life to get back to normal.
“IS THIS NORMAL? by Max Lucado
“Four thousand gathered for mid-day prayer in a downtown cathedral. A New
York City church, filled and emptied six times last Tuesday. The owner of a
Manhattan tennis shoe store threw open his doors and gave running shoes to
those fleeing the towers. People stood in lines to give blood,in hospitals
to treat the sick, in sanctuaries to pray for the wounded.
“America was different this week. We wept for people we did not know. We
sent money to families we’ve never seen. Talk show hosts read Scriptures,
journalists printed prayers. Our focus shifted from fashion hemlines and box
scores to orphans and widows and the future of the world.
“We were different this week. Republicans stood next to Democrats. Catholics
prayed with Jews. Skin color was covered by the ash of burning towers. This
is a different country than it was a week ago.
“We’re not as self-centered as we were. We’re not as self-reliant as we were.
Hands are out. Knees are bent. This is not normal. And I have to ask the
question, “Do we want to go back to normal?”
“Are we being given a glimpse of a new way of life? Are we, as a nation,
being reminded that the enemy is not each other and the power is not in
ourselves and the future is not in our bank accounts? Could this unselfish
prayerfulness be the way God intended for us to live all along? Maybe this,
in his eyes, is the way we are called to live.
“And perhaps the best response to this tragedy is to refuse to go back to
normal. Perhaps the best response is to follow the example of Tom Burnet.
He was a passenger of flight 93. Minutes before the plane crashed in the
fields of Pennsylvania he reached is wife by cell phone. ‘We’re all going to
die,” he told her, “but there are three of us who are going to do something
about it.’
“We can do something about it as well. We can resolve to care more. We can
resolve to pray more. And we can resolve that, God being our helper, we’ll
never go back to normal again.” Max Lucado