Surely America has reached the nadir of our political life. It's difficult to imagine our sinking much lower than this.

The debt reduction supercommittee has failed in its task, as we all knew it would. The stock market has signaled its disapproval. The President has blamed the usual suspects. Both sides vilify the other. And Americans scorn their elected representatives.

Meanwhile, the country and its future continue to slip out of our grasp.

We are trillions of dollars in debt, and much of that is held by people who do not wish us well. Millions of  folks are out of work and the government has no real solutions to proffer for reviving the economy. Investors and corporations, who could create jobs tomorrow, are holding their money close to their chests, fearful of a federal smash-and-grab should they show their hands. The schools are in a mess. The cities and campuses are struggling to keep from upheaval. Everybody is mad at somebody. How much worse can it get?

It should be obvious to all that our present impasse and crisis is not, in the end, a political problem. It's a moral problem, a problem of priorities and values.

Essentially, we have chosen to define wellbeing in terms of material prosperity, and we have deluded ourselves into thinking that there's no end to how much prosperity we can achieve.

What we failed to notice along the way, however, is that no amount of material prosperity can bring the contentment and peace that, deep within, every American longs to know. We keep throwing stuff at our unhappiness, yet our unhappiness just won't go away. More stuff. Less peace. More stuff. More debt.

Less freedom.

The moral crisis of Washington is on the same train as the moral crisis of State College, PA, the moral crisis of Wall Street, and the moral crisis that compromises every American's wellbeing through unwise choices and the frivolous pursuit of things.

I for one am rejoicing that our political well is apparently running dry. Perhaps Americans - I should say, perhaps Christian Americans - will now begin to exert as much energy in seeking the Lord for revival as they have in seeking politicians to secure their stuff.

Only God can lift us out of this morass. Only God can renew our vision as a people and our prospects as a nation. He calls us to seek Him with all our heart and promises that, if we do, we will find Him.

If you are not praying daily for revival, if you are not encouraging every group you know to make prayer for revival a focus of its time together, if you are not urging and pleading with others to pray for revival, then, frankly, you are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

But how easy it is to fix that.

I do not say we should swear off politics; that would be irresponsible. Nor am I calling us to burn all our stuff in the public square.

We just need to get a better perspective on things and focus our hope where it rightly belongs.

And that's not on stuff or government.

Related texts: 2 Chronicles 7.14; Jeremiah 29.11-14; Matthew 6.10, 33

A conversation starter: "How much more will it take, do you think, before Americans wake up to realize that our most basic problems are not political?"

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.