Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.  (Psalm 33:12).

Pondering and wondering.

I think our spiritual environment and cognitive, feeling and behavior atmosphere have portals & portholes in the spirit world. The kingdoms of good and evil.   A nation is not “blessed” meaning it has direct access with Yahweh. Neither does it mean we are His favorites, and we get sacks of candy on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The nation is “blessed” because it has made decisions that are congruent with Him, and that nation makes room to invite His presence and His principles, plans, laws and love.

The portals between man’s place and the separate two fountainheads of good and bad; righteousness and evil, are determined by “Thy will be done on earth as in heaven.” Pray that and set one’s body, soul (thinking, acting, feeling), and spirit to that outcome to keep the “porthole” open and under God’s control. That would be true for each of us and as a country.

The keys to the portals are held and kept on the belt loops of whomever the nation’s population selects to represent them. Not just for political agendas or policies. Our government representatives set the tone, morality, virtue of the whole nation. We are blessed when God is also the LORD of heads of government.

Listening to a doctor talking about nutrition in the food from current land usage. He said, “The dirt is dead.” Aside from his alliteration, he says “We are seeing planting and harvesting from dirt instead of soil.” His solution is to rotate crops. Maybe added to letting the land rest every 7^th year.

One of my odd experiences of the summer occurred at HyVee. I watched a young woman wrestling a big watermelon out of a shopping cart. I held the door for her and then asked if I could open her car door for her. Later, I asked myself why I didn’t offer to carry the melon. The answer is, I didn’t want her to think I was aiming to steal it. Thinking that through makes me laugh. How would I look running to escape while carrying a large melon? The lady was appreciative. We shared gardening stories. We both were disappointed in the melons we planted this year. Small and filled with seeds. Tomatoes didn’t mature. In fact, our garden was a bust. It could be there weren’t enough visits from bees which may be evidence of a smaller number of bees. The young lady suggested it was due to toxic mulch or dirt. I asked Carole. She said the dirt is dead.

A friend responded to my comments about the decline of respect for government by erasing the Senate’s Dress Code.  She observed that “I wonder if the decline of student’s behavior coincides with the relaxing dress code.”

There is a “stick-it-to-the-man” worldview and mindset in today’s Western Culture and society. That flows through the torn open portal from the fountain of evil into a feeding trough of options and things to consider.

• Corrupt leaders by example tell followers “This is the way to do it.”
• I suggest that a national leader who has sex in the Oval Office rips open immorality for the nation. The current sexual identity confusion and excesses with no society boundaries may be traced to what the Bible calls sin that grows into mainstream debauchery,
• I’m wondering if the Head Honcho who can be bribed and is open to use money not his/her own, can lead to gangs raiding stores to shoplift vast amounts. Theft by the wealthy or the flash mobs not only is personally wrong, but it is also response to the portal of evil. In another word, it is demonic.
• How about kids’ games where the target is a human or humans as displayed in Hunger Games? Add that to 60 million abortions. The value of life is diminished, and the quality of life slips and as Gen Z is experiencing, existential nihilism. How can violence be celebrated in movies, TV, and games without it impacting brains, and souls?
• You undoubtedly can add to this list.

Yesterday, 3000 illegals breached our southern border in two hours. Day before yesterday, 4000 bum-rushed the border. Our evening family discussion centered around, “Explain to me how that being allowed makes sense to anyone.”

How does that make sense? The dirt is dead. It is an invasion in response to a stated invitation. “Sure! Come on in!” Our mental, spiritual, emotional, legal ecological systems are polluted to the degree they reject incoming virtues. Romans 12:1-3 is an important paragraph for our current “climate crisis” which has not much to do with C₂0.

When the soul of a nation is bartered or abandoned, the soil becomes toxic. The soil has no nutrients to grow life-related produce, fruit. There is a prohibitive factor that keeps the nation from saying, “Wait! This is wrong! We are better than this—or should be.”

How does the soil rejuvenate?

The promise of God is, “…and I will heal your land…” (2 Chronicles 7:14). Does “land” also mean “soil”? For that to happen: I wonder what Abraham Lincoln would do in response to the anarchy and chaos that dominates this nation? How would Andrew Jackson handle the invasion? How about the hero who twice led millions of Europeans out of starvation—Herbert Hoover. How would he deal with the darkness? Equally important: how would Vivek respond? Trump? Robert Kennedy Jr.? DeSantis? Nikki Haley?

We know what Lincoln did. He called for a National Day of humiliation, repentance, prayer, and fasting. Remember, this is pondering and wondering. Since the elected leader is our selected representative, he/she and their appointees are keepers of the portals of good and evil. The national restoration begins with their acknowledgement and deep sorrow that we are in one terrible mess and choose to “seek His face.” The dirt is dead. God have mercy on your servant and restore our land.”

An obvious next question is, if the elected leader will not call for a sacred day of seeking, who is positioned to do so? Who has the nation’s ear? Who has street cred and spiritual authority to say, “My fellow citizens…” and raise a quorum? Is there a spiritual Line of Succession if the leader(s) cannot or will not call a National day of repentance and prayer?

There is another option which restores the spiritual ecology. It feels to me like it lets national leaders off the hook.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Jesus as recorded in Matthew 16:19)

Just wondering. Searching for effective ways to bind and loose.

©2023 D. Dean Benton