There doesn’t seem to be much to celebrate in America right now, does there? Our country is a mess. My grandfather once told me politics was a dirty business. I thought he was just being cynical. But I don’t think so anymore.

I know I’m supposed to write these articles to help you understand spiritual things better. Instead, this time I’m going to tell you some things I just don’t understand.

I don’t understand why some politicians will say the most outrageous things just to score points with potential voters. I don’t understand how politicians can reverse themselves and say something with a straight face that is diametrically opposite of something they’d said before.

 I don’t understand why the press doesn’t hold politicians accountable when they contradict themselves. I don’t understand why journalists seem to report the most outrageous rumors as news without first verifying the facts and checking the sources.

I don’t understand how news organizations and “experts” can get things wrong so often, and then expect us to keep listening to them. I don’t understand why they scold us and get angry when we don’t listen to them, or express confusion over their bogus stories and contradictory advice.

 I don’t understand why other politicians seem more concerned about being liked by the opposition than they are about opposing the opposition. I don’t understand why people can be elected or appointed to office in order to hold up certain principles, and then ignore or abandon those principles once they are in office.

I don’t understand why some church leaders seem ready to jump on whatever social bandwagon is in the news at the moment, and change what they supposedly believe the Bible teaches to match the current cause.

I don’t understand how rogue cops are allowed to get away with a history of violent excesses without punishment. I don’t understand how anyone can call for defunding or abolishing police departments on the basis of a few rogue cops. I don’t understand who you are going to call in event of a crime if there are no police departments. I don’t understand why mobs are allowed to destroy other people’s property and threaten other people’s lives in the name of “justice”. And I don’t understand who’s going to protect us from the mobs if we don’t have any police.

I don’t understand how anyone calling themselves a Christian can use racist language, make racist jokes, or act unkindly toward someone of another race. (I think Jesus is ashamed of you.) I don’t understand how we can teach our children to sing “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world”, and still use racist language and make racist jokes. I don’t understand how Christians can think and act that way when God told His people to be kind to the foreigners in their midst (Leviticus 19:34). I don’t understand how any Christian can be racist when none of us would be Christians today if the Jews hadn’t overcome their racism in the first century and taken the Gospel to other nations (Acts 10:25-29).

I don’t understand how anybody can say “We’re going to wipe out racism!” when racism is a product of sinful human hearts, and we’re going to have to fight against it until Jesus returns. I don’t understand how anyone can exalt one race over another when God said He has made of one blood all the nations of the world (Acts 17:26 KJV), when He so obviously delights in variety that He is ransoming people of all races to be His own (Revelation 5:9-10), and when one day He will have the nations of the world bring all their varied glory into His own Kingdom (Revelation 21:24).

I don’t understand how trying to erase or “cancel” our country’s history helps us learn what we did wrong in the past. I don’t understand how destroying statues of people who opposed slavery makes any sense at all. I don’t understand how calling for the destruction of churches and all images of a “white Jesus” keeps one more inner city child from dying as a result of gang violence.

I don’t understand why there are forces that want to silence the Gospel in our public life, when it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that overcomes our differences and makes us one. And I don’t understand how the church can surrender the one thing that is the answer to all this mess—the Good News of Jesus Christ—and soften it, or water it down, or trade it for some other feel-good, self-help message that can never transform lives or remove the stain of sin from our souls.

But I do understand that what the Apostle Paul said should be our declaration, too: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)

There’s a great quote from Corrie Ten Boom a friend of mine shared recently: “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. If you look at God you’ll be at rest.” Let’s keep looking to God in the face of Jesus Christ, and let us be faithful in doing our part to point others to Him.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Pastor David