I can talk all day long about moral corruption in Hollywood, the secularist agenda being crammed down our throat by the media, activist judges who are misusing their positions in our country to curtail religious freedoms, the corruption and hypocrisy of groups like Planned Parenthood, and the evils of Islamic terrorism and the wickedness of religious persecution in places like Russia, China, or North Korea. But what happens when the spotlight turns on us? How many of Israel’s sins do we also see replicated in the church?

It's time for the grown-ups in Washington to make themselves known. If we've learned anything, it's to take Trump at his word when he claims he will take vengeful action if he doesn't "win." If he can't get a health bill through Congress, he has plenty of ability to damage the Affordable Care Act through pure mismanagement.

We are prone to “cause ADD,” lurching from one crisis response to another. Fueled by media coverage and critical mass on social media, we embrace Kony 2012 and child soldiers one day and “Bring Back Our Girls”—the release of Nigerian schoolgirls from Boko Haram—the next. We care about refugees when there’s an atrocity in Syria and child trafficking when movie stars champion it. And all causes fade when a big earthquake hits.

If one sentence captures the quintessential idea of America, surely it the famous assertion contained in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Almost every word of this remarkable sentence, 236 years old today, is pregnant with meaning and strikingly relevant.

On most Sundays Jesus is the center of the worship service. But on Sunday before Independence Day, Jesus often takes a backseat to the flag. I understand the motive behind such “Freedom Sunday” services. I consider myself to be as patriotic (rightly understood) as anyone. I just don’t think the symbols of the American nation have a place in the embassy of the kingdom of God.

I recently wrote an article for Influence Magazine on “Leading for the Long Term.” In it, I try to debunk some false facts about longevity, and share some insights on how to stick it out. I wanted to take some time here to explain how the secret to longevity and sustainability for the long haul is character.

I’m not sure how “What’s God been teaching you?” grew to be the thing to ask a sufferer. Perhaps it was in response to The Problem of Pain, where C. S. Lewis wrote: Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

I thank God for folks who speak biblically about race. There are many brothers and sisters who take up this worthwhile battle. And it is a battle—with wounds, fatigue, and conflicting sides. Though there are many sides, I’ll mention two: on one side are folks who try to lovingly share biblical truth about race, and on the other side are people who reject it, often with hostility.

Here’s what we have in mind, Martin Luther and his virulent anti-Semitism. John Wesley was not your most attentive husband—neither was [George] Whitefield. Whitefield and Edwards both owned slaves. Edwards, one or two all of his life, probably. Martin Luther King Jr.—unfaithful to his wife repeatedly in his sexual misconduct. And, of course, the list could go on and on. How do we deal with this?

Many religious leaders, groups, institutions, and forces-for-good observe all this, and often speak out, but can usually produce only barely noticed whispers of criticism. Lewis warns that, meanwhile, we are confronted by weapons that offer us the ability to destroy ourselves, a shared hazard for which our social mechanisms for managing large-scale violence are dangerously ill suited.