Here we are a day after Americans have elected the first black man to the Presidency. Just a few decades ago many of these same Americans watched as one of America’s greatest leaders for change, Martin Luther King Jr., was killed for his stand on civil rights. What a dramatic and relatively quick journey, though of course not quick enough, this has been. Whether we all agree with his politics or not we must recognize that this is an historic moment in the life of our democracy and indeed our world. The prophetic calls of Rev. King, “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last…” now reverberate in tangible reality. The promised land, though not perfect, of which King spoke is being tasted. Republican, Democrat, Independent, and Americans of any other stripe should take heart that the promise of hope and opportunity are still alive in this, the greatest democratic experiment on earth.As I wrote many months ago on the heels of the Iowa caucuses, what attracted so many to the likes of Huckabee and Obama at that time still attract them today. The message of hope, a bright future, and the optimism of America are indeed inspirational. These are the things people voted for. These ideals we must never neglect. These values we must always aspire to regardless of who is in office.As we all ponder the significance of this event we must also be reminded of our great need as a country and as a people. This, again, is a need which transcends party alliances. Our greatest need, even beyond that of our American success and wealth, is for the blessing of God. Without the hand of God working for us, and in us, no amount of wealth or power will deliver us from the fate of many empires which have come and gone over the ages. While we must embrace the importance of this moment in history we must be careful to remind ourselves that if we detach ourselves from a humble dependence upon God, and a desire to follow his plan for humanity, we open ourselves to the further moral and spiritual demise which has threatened us for some time.No people, regardless of the winsomeness of its leaders, the strength of its military, and the size of its coffers, can hope to experience vitality and a prosperous future if it seeks to redefine life as it was intended to be lived by a God who has our best in mind. Intelligence, human potential, and government programs can never replace the blessing of God toward a people who seek to live out his plan and to extend His call to an onlooking world. Should we further the push toward a government ideology void of any biblical compass I fear we shall become a lesser nation and not a greater force for good on the earth. As we celebrate this moment of “change” in our country, my prayer is that we be resolutely focused on the need to establish laws which honor God’s plan for family, marriage, life, community, and culture. If we allow our leaders to define moral and spiritual reality for us rather than rely upon the Creator of life to lead us, no amount of affection for “change” will result in more than empty, frustrating, and failing human engineering. Devoid of a moral foundation, a benchmark for ultimate reality beyond ourselves, we are groping in the dark, and the soaring rhetoric will lead us nowhere. We will need much more in the days ahead than the politically obligatory salutation, “God bless America”. Without a leadership and a culture committed to the call of God upon a people such empty phrasing will not suffice. To ask God’s blessing upon us as we go about making laws which deny His character is to make a mockery of our reference to Him. It is self-contradictory and logically absurd. My hope and my prayer, as I am sure it is yours, is for the future prospering of our land. My prayer is that we prosper spiritually, economically, as a culture, and as a force for good in our world. My prayer is that our leaders, in the days ahead, look humbly to God for His direction as they lead. Anything less, call it what you want, is not a change for the better, nor is it in keeping with the original design of wonderful democratic experiment we call America. Let’s hope and pray that in a couple of months when our new leadership is sworn in, that this leadership places a hand and a heart upon the bible and that our new leadership is willing to work indeed for a better America, an America defined as one nation under God. That better America will come to fruition only as our leaders seek to lead under the gaze of an audience of One for the good of many. This great experiment is still alive, but we must remember it is a fragile experiment and must be guarded with our souls. As history has shown we are part of a world filled with many perils. If we cannot recognize that good and evil do exist, and if we cannot acknowledge that absolutes are in actuality just that, absolute, we blind ourselves to the vision set before us by our founders. Our fundamental source of blessing has been and always must be the gratefulness of our people for the touch of God upon us and the desire to live in concert with His principles. The greatest call for “change” we must all hear is the clarion call for each of us individually, and all of us collectively, to move closer to the ideal God has for us.Let us not forget, it was the compulsion of men and women of faith who, very early on, both here and abroad, sounded the first cries for freedom. It was the biblical truth of the dignity of all mankind which set the flame under the fire of Martin Luther King Jr.. And before him it was Lincoln’s anchor in the divine mandate which compelled him to lead the way and to raise the rhetoric. Education, persuasion, effort, and opinions are not enough. Power is not enough. We need the blessing of God. We are not our own. Our future is dependent upon this truth.May God indeed bless America,Bruce Smithoptimuslife.org