Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

Proverbs 14:34, NIV

As a recovering "big city" man, I have probably spent more time than I should looking at videos and news stories related to America's large towns. Because of my dad's job, our family lived on the outskirts of Denver, Seattle and Houston, and we got to enjoy many of the amenities of these metropolitan areas. There were few things more exciting than going to places like the Denver Zoo, or riding the elevator all the way up the Space Needle that had been built to showcase America's cutting edge architecture for the 1962 World's Fair. The greatest thrill though was getting to go to the "Eighth Wonder of the World" and watch indoor baseball games at Houston's Astrodome.

I suppose growing up around these cities during their heydays was something I took for granted at the time. But now, all three of these cities are but a shell of their former glory. It's true that there are still a few "sanitized" areas where one can go and think they they are still in there prime, but when you stray but a few blocks from the areas for "public view" you quickly see things that you wish you had never seen. There are homeless encampments and drug infested communities wherein you can see things that even Hollywood has too much morality to display.

What happened?

I think Solomon covered it pretty well in the inspired verse we read above. When a people are righteous the resulting blessings have the capacity to exalt an entire nation. This was true of the America I grew up in as a child. While it's true that there were "skid rows" in many towns of that era, they were isolated for the most part and the denizens of these wicked areas hesitated to stray too far lest they be discovered and disciplined. But now? Now we see open wickedness and crime and behavior too shameful to discuss. The reason for this is also revealed in the preceding passage. It is because sin is always a disgrace to any people, and the penalties for that disgrace spread like a cancer.

So why talk about this now? I live in a small town that is pretty much filled with righteous people so it shouldn't be a problem, should it? Yet when I look around even our small town I see the same seeds of destruction that were being planted in the sex, drugs and rock 'n roll era I grew up in during the 1960's. I don't look too far to see the consequences of our own drug communities even within a small town. And you also don't have to look too far to see the beginnings of the squalor and rot that always seem to accompany a loosening of morals. And while it is true that I wouldn't want to live anywhere else because of the wonderful righteous people that still make up the vast majority of our beautiful little town, I know that this may not be the case for my children if we do not get control of ourselves.

For the truth of the matter can never change: Righteousness will always exalt, and sin will always bring shame. One of the reasons that I write these little articles is not just to remember the good times that were, but also to encourage others to do the work that is needed to ensure the good times that will be. Our children and our grandchildren deserve this and so, by the way, does God. So, let us all be determined to restore and develop the types of behavior that God expects of us so that we can leave behind something that our children will be proud of. It would be too horrible to conceive that we could leave behind anything that would disgrace their memories of us, so we need to get to work now.

It won't be easy. But, one heart at a time, we can all return to God and then we can help others do the same. Those who refuse can be ignored only so long before their sin begins to rot entire communities, so we must not forget them either. We must always remember that God loves them so we need to love them too. But we also need to remember to first and foremost protect the innocent ones that will suffer if we do not do something to reign in the sin that threatens to overtake and disgrace any community - ours included - should that sin be left unchecked.

And we need to do this understanding that righteousness always exalts a people, but sin will always disgrace a nation. Which, I wonder, will we choose?