Several winters ago a poorly paid waiter in a major city found a briefcase containing cash and negotiables in a parking lot. No owner was in sight. No one saw the waiter find it and put it in his car in the wee hours of the morning.
But for the waiter, there was never any question of what to do. He took the briefcase home, opened it, and searched for the owner’s identity. The next day he made a few phone calls, located the distressed owner, and returned the briefcase along with the $25,000 cash it contained!
The surprising thing about this episode was the ridicule the waiter experienced at the hands of his friends and peers. For the next week or so he was called a variety of names, like “idiot” or “stupid” and much worse. More than a few people laughed at him because he still possessed what was once held in high regard – honesty and integrity.
It is impossible to have a moral community or a moral nation without belief in God as well as a relationship with God. Without this, everything rapidly comes down to “me,” and “me” alone is meaningless in a nation.
Today, so many, many Americans have stopped acting on what they once knew was right and the “me” has become the measure of everything in our country.
Moral societies are the only ones that work. If anyone thinks there is not a direct and invaluable relationship between personal integrity and honesty in a society and that society’s prosperity, that person has simply not studied history.
Great societies are great moral societies, built upon a deep and enduring faith in God, honor, trust, the truth and the law. Great societies blossom because they are harmonious, where people love or at least respect one another. Why? Because they have a common belief in Someone and Something beyond and greater than themselves, namely God.
For old-timers like me, our parents and our grandparents did not spend their days and their nights fighting for “me”, for privilege, for turf, for money and for power over their fellow citizens. Most of them had a strong belief in God and they went to church to get closer to God and to one another.
Alexis de Tocqueville said it best when he realized at the very beginning of our life as a country: “America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”
Thanks to Edgar Columba for the photo.
Do YOU believe that many Americans have stopped acting on what they once knew was right from wrong and the “me” has become the measure of everything in our country?
I would very much appreciate hearing YOUR thoughts.
EVERY TIME I COUNT MY BLESSINGS, MY LOVE FOR GOD GROWS BIGGER!
EVERY TIME I COUNT MY STRUGGLES, MY FAITH IN GOD GROWS STRONGER!
We live in a very divided and troubled nation. Please share today’s message and listen to my Podcast.
