Woe to Moab. Woe to Us.

New Year’s starts out with all of our best intentions. We vow to eat better, become more active, save more money, and do other promised deeds to make ourselves somehow more “complete”. Generally, as a nation, our goals align with our individual selves. Perhaps, if we recognize our dependence on the Lord, our resolutions would look more like: reading the Word more often, praying more regularly, fasting, and showing more kindness.

Now in the beginning chapters of a Post-Christian America, our nation is in opposition to Christian thought. We are becoming Moab, which would welcome the Lord’s anointed as sojourners (see the book of Ruth), yet did not align itself with the God Yahweh. For as often as Christianity is blamed for the “restraint” on personal liberties and identities, some could convincingly argue our nation is hostile towards the faith. We generally trust in ourselves as “good people” (deeds) and our economy (riches) to define how we prioritize our lives: namely, work constantly towards paying off mounds of debt and contributing money to causes when an effort is most needed. Our country is primed to be taken captive, if not by a foreign entity, then by our own internal strife, confused purposes, and sinful angst.

This is not all “their” fault; Evangelicals are now better known as politicians than missionaries, which is indicative of where the general Christian population has put its greatest trust—again, in man and our systems of governance similar to the people of Samuel’s days. We have fallen asleep at the wheel of our faith and allowed a Christian nation to be consumed by materialism and moral crisis. Jeremiah contains a warning for us as well:

We should expect those who are lost to act as selfishly and sinfully as we did prior to our redemptive faith. The greatest failing is upon our own heads with our poor execution according to the Great Commission. US Christians hide behind deeds without the Word and offer riches, in secret, towards charitable causes without the public admission that volunteering and evangelism require. To be clear, this is not a call towards self-aggrandizing displays of charity—Jesus warns against that. However, this is a call for Christians to start the New Year off with the Lord in mind, instead of our deeds and instead of our riches.

May God embolden us to go forth to live and share the Gospel. May we put our trust in eternal things before resolving to chase worldly things.