The Thing in the Tent

By Pastor Justin Cooper

I drove past three churches on my way home the other evening, one right after another, their steeples catching the last of the light. And I found myself thinking about how blessed this country still is, and at the same time how uneasy I feel about where it's headed. Both things are true at once. I love America. I don't blush at saying America is an exceptional nation. But I would be lying to you if I said I wasn't afraid for it.

Here is what I have had to admit, though. When I go looking for the reason things feel like they're slipping, my first instinct is to point out there — at the headlines, at the politicians, at the culture. It is a satisfying place to point. It costs me nothing.

But I read something in myself this week that I couldn't shake.

There is a story in the book of Joshua that has been sitting on my heart. Israel had just watched the walls of Jericho fall. Total victory. And then they marched on a much smaller town called Ai and got routed — soldiers dead, the army in retreat, mourning where there had just been shouting. Why? Because one man, Achan, had taken something God told him to leave alone, and he hid it in his tent.

One hidden thing. One man's tent. And it brought defeat on a whole nation.

I have said for years that I could preach against everything wrong with our society, and there is plenty. But I am not sure that is what is really endangering us. The danger was never the army outside the camp. It was the accursed thing inside the tent. And I have to ask myself an honest question before I ask it of anyone else: what have you and I quietly tucked away and gotten comfortable with?

I told our people something on Sunday that I need to keep telling myself.

That line was aimed at me as much as anyone. It is easy to be an expert on what's wrong and an amateur on my knees. You and I were never called to merely diagnose a nation. We were called to carry it before God.

So here is the Monday morning step. Before you scroll one more headline and shake your head, before you fire off one more comment about the state of things, stop and pray for this country by name. One specific thing. Out loud. Trade thirty seconds of complaining for thirty seconds of interceding. Do it every morning this week and watch what it does to your heart.