Land of the Free and Home of…Dysfunction?

America has always been known as the greatest nation on the face of the earth unfortunately it has its fair share of problems.

• Poverty    The poverty threshold for 2012 for a family of four, was $23,492.*
• Crime        In 2012 the number of violent crime in the US, based on a population of 313,914,040 was 1,214,464.**
• Drug and Alcohol Addiction     In 2012, 9.2% of the population that’s an estimated 23.9 million Americans aged 12 or older had abused an illicit drug or psychotherapeutic medication.***
• Debt          The National debt is now at 18 trillion, and the number of bankruptcies filed in 2014 is 936,795.****

Depression, health and relationship issues, race relations – the list goes on.

In spite of all the problems we have here, there are those who come here illegally because they realize what we seem to have forgotten – or that we now take for granted.

Differing opinions on how to solve our nation’s problems, and how much of it is the government’s responsibility to fix, have caused deep divisions throughout the country.

I am an individual liberty proponent and a big fan of the framers of the Constitution. It was brilliant how they crafted the document. Just as we do today, however, they had deep divisions among the colonies they were hoping to unite. But because their desire for liberty was stronger than their differences, the colonies stood together to declare their independence.

Our United States are, nationally, what we are relationally – somewhat dysfunctional. In our humanity, we make wrong decisions and we sin against God and our fellow citizens.

The same humanity that allows some to sin against our brothers and sisters also drives our compassion and desire to give a helping hand to those in need. The church used to care for the poor and lead people to freedom from bondage through Jesus Christ. Government has taken the place of the Church.

It used to be people were too proud to take charity. When the charity comes from the government it becomes expected not looked at with disdain.

Maybe the increasing number of problems we are experiencing as a nation are due, in part, to the fact that we are drifting farther and farther from God. Somewhere along the line our individual liberty has taken precedence over the One who gave us liberty.

If anyone cares to find them, the answer to every problem can be found in God’s word. Perhaps instead of putting our faith and trust in men or women, we should once again look to the wisdom of the Creator of the universe.

Mark 12:30-31 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these. (NLT)

…No other commandment.

Where do you seek wisdom? Have you looked to scripture to help you solve a problem? When is the last time you shared wisdom from the Word?

1) National Center for Law and Economic Justice
2) Department of Justice
3) National Institute on Drug Abuse
4) USDebtClock.org  US Courts