By Charles Christmas

Government shut down, debt ceiling, Syria’s civil war and poison gas stockpile, Iran’s nuclear bomb plans, Egypt’s civil war, the Iraq failure, how to wind down Afghanistan, international terrorism, Israeli/Palestinian stalemate, worldwide Islamic extremism, breakdown of family stability, addictions of all kinds, soaring numbers of mental and emotional sicknesses, society’s obsession with sex and sexual immorality, war against marrying, decay of family and marriage, natural disasters and divisions over affordable health care: this is a beginning and partial list of major crises we and our nation face.

Who knows what to do? Who has the answer or answers? Who can lead us during, through or out of these crises? I think the simple truth is: No one knows what to do! Our national leaders do not know what to do; the general public does not know what to do; seemingly, the church does not know what to do; and the parroting, echoing, critical and biased news media does not have a clue.

A simplistic, one-size-fits-all suggested solution would be ridiculous. Our mounting crises are beyond a descriptive magnitude. The name of my column is “Simple Truth.” Isn’t there at least a glimpse of truth about some partial beginning of a solution in which I personally and you could involve ourselves?

A national leader in the Old Testament, in the face of an insurmountable crisis, admitted, “We do not know what to do!” This admission was the first step in an eventual solution. Admitting his helplessness and cluelessness, he then added, “But our eyes are upon the Lord.” In the New Testament, we find leaders admitting, “We are not sufficient for these things.” But an additional statement followed: “Our sufficiency is of God.” Would we not all agree that with escalating crises, the best of wisdom is now needed? One age-old truth is that “reverence for God is the beginning of wisdom.” During a great crisis of leadership and unity in the nation of Israel, Moses and Aaron “fell facedown before God.” This “beginning of wisdom” enabled a divided nation to continue. Many times it is recorded that national crises compelled Moses, or Moses and Aaron, to fall on their faces before God and before the people. When Joshua faced a national crisis for which he had no answer, he and the leaders “fell facedown before God.”

This article is not an attempt to say what our national leaders should do. Anyone seems to have the answer as to “what others should do.” We have no control over any leader in our nation to compel any one to fall on his or her face before God or reverence God. But we do have personal control and responsibility over the person who lives in our (my) own skin.

I can add one more curse toward the darkness; but on the other hand I could strike a little flickering match of light in the midst of the vast darkness. You and I can fall on our faces before God and admit, “We do not know what to do,” but assert in feeble faith, “but our eyes are upon the Lord.” “They don’t know and I don’t know what to do” is not a solution. “I will do what I can do” is a beginning of a solution. Jesus said of himself, “I am the Light of the World.” He said to those who believed in him, “You are the light of the world.” Righteousness lifts up a nation. You cannot lift our nation up, but you can be one righteous person.

At the climax of Jesus’ life on earth, he looked into the face of the devil, his demons and earthly representatives and said, “This is your hour, and darkness rules.” But he said to his disciples, “My hour has come.” And what did he do with his hour? In Gethsemane, “He fell facedown on the ground before God the Father” in agonizing surrender to the will of the Father. He struck the match which has become the eternal worldwide light in darkness. He is waiting for you and me to strike a match. Let’s fall on our faces before God now.

—Charles Christmas is a religion columnist for The Clanton Advertiser. His column appears each Thursday.