Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Lincoln's answer



Too Smart to Know
(by R.P.Edwards)

We’re too smart to know
We’re too smart to pray
Too smart to ask
Too smart to say
“Lord, I need help!
It’s bigger than we.
But “you” have a way.
We know “you” can see.
And if you will share,
We promise…to give.”
But we’re too smart for that.
Yes, we’re too smart…to live.


We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

A portion of a proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln in the midst of the Civil War. Apparently the conflict wasn’t going too well (1863)  and, like many of us, when our own “means” falter…we eventually turn to others, and finally, hopefully, to the ultimate “other”…God.

A few days back I was talking to a friend about this and that, and then, in the course of things, he offered his take on the Gulf Oil debacle, that is, he had the solution.  Well, I was ready for a plan, or a product; but instead he simply said, “They should pray.”  Pray?  “Yes, all of them should pray.  God has the solution to this problem.” 

Now, for any who follow this blog at all, you’ll notice, from time to time, that God has a place.  But, frankly, I was caught off guard.  “They should pray.” Well…of course!  It’s so simple.  The president should call the nation to pray.  To ask for His help, guidance, care.

Of course, on the face of it, it’s absurd.  At this point our national leaders are so secular, so anti-deity, that to admit inadequacy; to actually “humble” themselves--and ask the nation to do the same--well, as I said, it’s absurd. But, dear reader, I think my friend is right.  And, when conditions become desperate enough; the “absurd” may be our only alternative.  It’s a pity it has to wait for that.

Here’s a link to Lincoln’s complete proclamation:  Lincoln's call to prayer

That's what I think.  How about you? Click comments below...and say.

2 comments:

Wesley Sargent said...

Very funny...this morning as I was preparing for the day, this thought kept going through my mind - what if millions of Americans started praying for the oil to stop, or for a solution to work...

Then, I come visit your blog, which I haven't done in a while (too busy at work)...and look what I read.

Perhaps God is talking to more than one person about this "alternative"! ;)

The Layoff Letters said...

I hope so, Wes. I imagine, if things get desperate enough, even praying to God might be considered.