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PERSPECTIVE: A Stream of Life in a Time of Drought

Every day it seems like the world is spinning further out of control. COVID-19 infection rates are spiking again around the globe. The Taliban has wrested control of Afghanistan after an announced American troop withdrawal, and many of that nation’s citizens are fleeing for their lives. Catastrophe has hit the island nation of Haiti once again as the post-earthquake death toll numbers in the thousands. Biological men identifying as women became some of the most celebrated contestants in the Tokyo Olympic games as transgenderism is embraced more and more into the world’s psyche.

Closer to home, the U.S. Congress is spending trillions of taxpayer dollars with little regard to the burden it will place on future generations. The humanitarian crisis at our southern border is only growing, and racial tensions across America continue to rise as critical race theory and other controversial philosophies are being forced on our students in public schools and universities.

Here in North Carolina, our Governor continues to veto life-affirming, life-saving legislation—this time a bill that would ban abortions motivated because of the sex or presumed race of the unborn child or a diagnosis of Down syndrome. At the same time, many self-identified conservative, pro-family legislators are embracing harmful policies like the legalization of marijuana and a massive expansion of predatory sports gambling. And children and parents alike are at their wits’ end as they attempt to navigate the ever-changing “science” and standards of COVID-19 vaccines, masks, and in-person versus virtual learning.

With all that is happening around us, it is easy to feel disillusioned, overwhelmed, and even in despair.

However, as I shared in a commentary at the beginning of 2021, as believers and followers of Jesus Christ, it is imperative that we remember our faith is not in man or our circumstances, but in God, the Creator of the universe and the author and perfecter of our faith.

Jeremiah 17 instructs,

5 This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. 7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8 They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

The following was my prayer for us in January and remains my prayer for us in the coming days:

May God grant us the resolve to sink our roots deep into His stream so that we may demonstrate to our neighbors, our nation, and the world, that the Lord Jesus Christ is not shaken by our worldly circumstances but remains sovereign over all things. May His gracious Spirit enable us to be a light in this nation, and, like green leaves in a parched and barren land, bear witness to His love, grace, mercy, and truth. May God help us resist the urge to despair, but, instead, resolve to do all that we can, through His power and strength, to restore civility, trust, and reason in our land. And, as we bear fruit— as He promises we will do—may He be glorified and honored, and may others come to know Him in a deep and personal way.
Amen!

To God Be the Glory!

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John L. Rustin is President of the North Carolina Policy Council

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