Ask and ye shall receive: America has got what it has asked for

A nation under siege. Riots, disguised as protests, are taking place all over the country. Homicide numbers continue to rise in places like Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and Baltimore. Citizens are angry over shootings, they're angry over the protests, they're angry in general.

But, let's stop and ask ourselves a very vital question: "Have we not received what we have asked for?"

After all, a nation that turns its back on God is a nation without the mercy and protection of God.

We have kicked God out of our classrooms, courtrooms, and replaced God with ourselves. We want what we want, when we want it, and how we want it.

We have placed city, state, and national leaders in positions of authority that support the murder of innocent life before birth with abortions, our tax dollars go to support places such as Planned Parenthood....which means our tax dollars are paying for abortions, we have allowed homosexual marriages, but yet somehow we want God to continue allowing us to be the way we have always been. We want a 'divine protection' and 'grace and mercy' from the same God we have said we don't want anything to do with.

The same mentality....I want from you what I want, but not on your terms.

According to a Gallup poll in 2014, the state with the highest weekly church attendance was Utah...and that was only 51% of their population, followed by southern states Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, etc. But, those didn't have any higher than 47% of their population attending church weekly.

Less than half.....less than half of the population of any state attends church weekly. Yet, we want God to attend to us all the time.

"and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator..." (Romans 1:23-24)

Doesn't that sound like us?

Money, power, position, prestige, material things....all things that this country focuses on and the "I have a right" mentality has caused this nation to turn away from worshiping God and worship its own creations and...even worship themselves.

If God is not first in our lives, something or someone else is....and it's not only wrong...it's a mortal sin.

"You shall have no other gods before Me."

Remember that in the 10 Commandments?

By our actions, our elections, and views, and our court filings with lawsuits....we have asked for a godless nation....and we have received a godless nation.

Yet...we are surprised when it looks like anarchy?

St. Teresa of Calcutta said "any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want."

Isn't that ever true for our nation.

Could you argue all the depravity of this country is rooted in its acceptance of abortion? Perhaps....but more importantly...you can argue it is rooted in what it teaches by actions, not words.

Our actions have spoken volumes, and we have taught well....we have just not taught by our actions what the real lessons should be.

So, the second most important question is: "What do we do about it?"

We have got ourselves into this mess, what do we do now?

Pray. Not praying for an end to the violence. Not a prayer for the protests and riots to stop. Not a prayer for the shootings and murders to stop....although all of that is great to pray for.

We need to get on our knees before our holy God and pray for ourselves. Pray that we will be better Christians, pray that we will place God first in our lives, pray that God remove anything and everything that is preventing us from serving Him to the fullest and from him being first, and we need to ACT.

Attend Mass each week....multiple times a week if possible.

Pray with our children at bedtime, at dinner time, and in the morning.

We need to obey the 10 Commandments....so that our children see our words in actions, not in words only.

We need to place leaders in offices where abortion will not be tolerated, homosexual marriages will not be accepted, and we take care of the poor. We take care of our neighbors. We help when they need help. We stop rushing down the highway to our job, only to ignore the needs of those in the very same office with you or those you pass by on the highway, and then rush home to our air conditioned homes and food on the table....when there are those with no home and no food that we simply ignore.

Most importantly, we make God as much of our daily conversation as our spouse and children are. If we talked about God and our faith as much during the day as we did our spouse and children, imagine what a change that would be.

It just might place God first in this nation again.....instead of last. Then, and only then, when God is first...we will have peace and love.