Where have all the leaders gone?

A dear friend of mine sent me a forwarded email containing part of an excerpt from Lee Iacoca’s new book. My reply to that email follows:

Thanks for sending this. It was interesting to read the entire excerpt.

I’ve thought a lot about getting involved in all of this on a political or social level. Iacoca mentioned the Titanic, and our country has not only been headed straight for the iceberg for decades, but accelerating towards it for most of my lifetime (e.g., Roe v. Wade, 1973, etc.).

So what is my personal responsibility to my country, in a leadership position or otherwise? Do I strive to heal our economy so we can continue to delude ourselves into believing we’re on the right road? Do I work to improve government so everyone’s comfortable and continues to ignore God and reject His commands? Comfort, success, money: these are the great pacifiers that so easily lull us into apathy and ruin, away from the God who has blessed us with all the good things we have been given.

Iacoca mentions crisis in the excerpt. These crises we’re experiencing have done more for my relationship with God than any of the good times ever did. What our country needs most is crisis, which is the only thing that seems to cause people to return to God. No amount of public policy, or rescue of capitalism and free markets will fix this root problem: our rejection of the one true God. Iacoca seems to be looking for the same Messiah the Jews were seeking: a leader who would save them from their political and social problems. When the actual Christ appeared and provided the true answers, the establishment had nothing for the Savior and His message but contempt.

What, then, is the answer? This is where I plan to focus my energies:

– I resolve to continue to commit myself to prayer and love of God’s Word.
– I resolve to continue to rear my children in the knowledge of God and His precepts, and teach them love for Him and for others.
– I resolve to continue to spread His love and His Word at every opportunity to those who so desperately need Him.

These are the things that build a strong foundation for a nation, and I believe I could do nothing of greater value for our country in these desperate times.

2 Chronicles 7:14 – If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Joshua 24:15 – But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.