My 10-year-old daughter received an e-mail with a poem lamenting the absence of prayer in schools and talking about the general state of the nation today where its outlook on God is concerned. You've probably received an e-mail like it. After she read it, I asked if I could talk to her about it. My perspective is a little different from that of many people (shocker, I know).

I offered my daughter a parallel that I hoped would help her to see it in a different way. My story came before the wave of medical caution had begun to spread through the United States and began to impact our local community (many schools closed last week and remain closed today in an effort to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus).

Here's my analogy: when a child is sick, often she'll be taken to the doctor. Once the doctor has gone through a battery of tests to determine what exactly the sickness is, he'll offer his diagnosis and recommended treatment. Say the symptoms are fever, chills, sore throat, fatigue, and cough, and the doctor determines that it's the common form of the flu. The doctor's medical expertise is going to give him the wisdom to prescribe something to attack and destroy the virus. While he may give something to treat the symptoms, too, it's likely that he won't send the patient away and treat only the chills, recommending that she bundle up with a heavy blanket.

This is what I believe we're prone to do with issues like prayer in public schools. I've heard many, many people say that America entered into moral decline when prayer was legislated out of public schools. While I have no great argument that this moral decline happened to coincide with the removal of prayer, this wasn't a cause/effect situation.

The standard logic seems to be that if we could somehow get prayer and the legal mention of the name "Jesus Christ" legislated back into the school system (or at least allowed again), things would begin to look up again and all eyes would begin to turn back to God. In reality, the removal of prayer from public schools was a reflection of the spiritual condition of the leadership in (and the population of) the United States of America.

This idea that the removal of prayer from schools was a catalyst rather than an effect causes many Christians to take a leap into attacking politicians, parties, and political philosophies. It necessarily becomes a battle of religion vs. politics, and the reality of a personal relationship with Christ -- the very thing that could give the situation hope -- is left as an "Oh, by the way" issue at best. It's as if we're trying to convert a political party, and our method of "conversion" seems to be more like a bloody crusade than Godliness, prayer, and meekness.

1 Timothy 2:1-4 (NLT) says this: I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.

I desperately want America to become a Christian nation. It isn't one. The "conversion" of America will not happen by bludgeoning politicians with a Jesus stick or a forced movement of the "religious right". It can only come as individual hearts are changed and hearts and eyes are turned to Christ. It can be started and helped along by Christ-following men and women serving God in positions of political influence. But neither morality nor Godliness can be legislated.

To be clear, I'm not advocating that we shy away from all political issues. We cannot sit idly and allow state-sanctioned, legalized abortion to continue, for instance (and this is not the only issue). But for Christians who are content to simply hurl stones at people in political office and expect it to somehow turn hearts to God, look for yourself to see if this kind of activity is supported Biblically. If it is, keep it up. If it's not, stop it. God has a purpose for you -- a particular way He wants you to participate in seeing His will accomplished here and now, and in the future -- and I'd contend that it's not found in that sort of action (or inaction).

This post is duplicated from my main site, www.deanlusk.com.

Funny thing... I've found that I don't seem to have nearly as much trouble relying on God, listening to Him, and obeying Him in times of extreme circumstances as I do when things are middle-of-the-road. Is that just me, or is it something you've noticed in yourself?

Jesus said, "Love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you." When someone hates me, that's a pretty easy thing to identify, and therefore an immediate red flag pops up with the associated message, "Love this person and do good to them." Following that directive may not always be as easy as identifying it, but it's immediately on my mind.

Likewise, when something extremely good has happened or I'm in a worship service where the Spirit is at work, it's incredibly easy to focus on God and want to talk to Him and thank Him for everything.

But what about the medium things? Situations and people that insult our sense of pride but wouldn't go as deep as letting us put someone in the "enemy" category?

(I'm going to identify a couple of dining establishments here. Is it taboo to name them in writing? Hope not...)

My family went to McDonald's over the weekend and it was obvious when I ordered that I was simply a bother to the crew there. ("Customers? Bah! Who needs 'em?!") We went to the "convenient" drive-through and I had to go inside twice to assist them in getting our order correct. We ate at PF Chang's yesterday after my son had a minor medical procedure (the restaurant was his choice of cuisine as a sort of reward for vigilance) and we had a similar experience. I felt rotten after we left the place for not having asked our waitress if everything was okay and asking to pray with her. Apparently we were there for her convenience, and it showed.

These people weren't my enemies; they were apathetic. That's almost worse. Think about it; when someone is apathetic toward you, it says that you're so low and inconsequential that you don't really even register on their radar screen.

In those sorts of situations I find it oddly difficult to think like a genuine Christ-follower. I can probably act like it, but if it's not coming from a pure and authentic heart, I've got serious unresolved issues.

"You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment!" - Jesus, in Matthew 5:21-22 (NLT)

(Special thanks to Jan Owen and a few other great bloggers.)