By James Wilson
A funny thing happened to me as I walked down the corridor toward the hearing room in California’s state capitol. My team awaited my leadership of our monthly meeting to pray God’s blessing and our repentance over the state. The Lord spoke, calling me to give thanks for the Supreme Court decision authorizing same sex marriage in open defiance of our national constitution. That’s right; He told me to give thanks and to lead my teams in thirty-two of California’s counties in giving thanks.
When I responded with something like, “Really?” he reminded me of the call in 1 Thessalonians 5 to give thanks in all things. “Yes,” I said, “but isn’t this a little extreme?” His reply was quick and succinct. “This is my way of leaving the Church with nothing to lose.”
There is no question the Supreme Court decision was utterly corrupt from a legal standpoint. Justice Kennedy admits in the majority decision he wrote that he and the other four justices voted to defy the constitution they swore on the Word of God to defend. The jury is equally in on the irrationality of their decision. Studies in every nation mandating gay marriage demonstrate the harm it does to gay and straight alike. Gays do not reap the health and welfare benefits they expect – because marriage does not address the challenges inherent in their lifestyle – challenges having nothing to do with acceptance by heterosexuals. Straight marriages tend to become less frequent and less resilient because the covenant is devalued in a culture believing it means whatever judges decide it means. Justice Kennedy sniffs that he fails to see how gay marriage can harm heterosexual marriage. Failure is the operant term here; looking reality in the eye precedes understanding what is seen.
So why should Christians – or any intelligent ones – give thanks for this failure?
Because we have for too long lived in a cocoon in which we imagine our help comes from the court system, the constitutional protection of our right to practice the truth of our faith, and the good intentions and common sense of people who lead our culture. Even now some applaud Chief Justice Roberts’ principled dissent in the marriage case, conveniently forgetting Roberts used the same twisted logic as Kennedy to uphold Obamacare – not once but twice. Reality is our help comes from the Lord our God and from Him alone; nothing has changed. Imagining our help comes from human institutions and structures is and has always been idolatry. And now, according to God Himself, speaking in a corridor of secular power, the veil has been torn and there is nothing left to see but Him. We do need to give thanks.
We need give more than thanks for a dose of truth. We need to beg God in Christ to fill us with His courage – the courage He gave King David when he marched to face Goliath. We need to recall GK Chesterton’s word that courage is simply fear that has said its prayers. And we need to ask God to give us a vision that says yes to Him and His covenant and not just no to the tyranny of unelected judges and lawsuit happy gay couples. The way is to commit to serious repentance. Do we still imagine human structures and assets can restore our torn and gasping culture? Gay marriage is simply the latest in a century of compromising our lives and families on the altar of whatever feels good at the moment.
The Great Awakening of the mid eighteenth century forged a nation that stood before God. The second Great Awakening of the early nineteenth century shaped a national character of personal sacrifice for the benefit of others. The third brought hippies down from drugs and filled them with the Holy Spirit of miraculous healing and a zeal to witness to the world what they had received. All three restored families. The fourth will do likewise alongside whatever else it creates, but we can depend on it requiring a culture of repentance in believers – as all the others have done.
Let us remember that repentance is first and foremost a re-focus of our attention on God and away from what we have set in His rightful place.
California, Oregon and Washington are engaging a Trifecta of Repentance on September 9, 10 and 11. This rolling Day will be held in California’s capitol the 9th; Oregon’s the 10th; and Washington’s the 11th. Alaska and British Columbia are proclaiming their own days in conjunction and cooperation with the lower west coast trifecta. These days climax fifty-two days of fasting and prayer for our states and nation that corresponds to the fifty-two days on which Nehemiah and his band of brethren worked to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem after their release from Babylonian captivity. Their work too began and ended in repentance and worship; they knew the sole source of their help.
Readers who want to participate – or just check this process out – are invited to go to www.dayofrepentance1.org. Readers who reflect this material has no bearing on their lives since no day of repentance is planned in their states might want to ask, “Why not?” and move from there to, “What is stopping me from starting one?” And those who think prayer and repentance a crutch for those who fear to rely on themselves might want to ask, “What other options have not yet been tried and found bankrupt?” Honest answers to any of these questions will lead into a new Great Awakening of the blessing and providence of the God Who sacrificed His Son for us. We were born for such a time as this.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
