Lord God, I’m finding it difficult to celebrate today.  I will take my kids to the Fourth of July parade and to the fireworks for the first time.  I will enjoy time with my family and friends.  I will be grateful particularly for the tenet of our nation that each American can have freedom to choose how to live.  It reminds me so closely of the freedom that You offer – we are free to choose You.  Or not.  And You desire to know us but You let us decide that for ourselves.  And in You, we have freedom to live life fully, to let go of what hinders us and drags us down, to follow You on a lifetime of adventure and grace.  I didn’t know real freedom until I knew You.

But my heart is heavy.  There are so many things that are broken today.  So many wrongs.  I can’t speak for all Americans because I don’t represent all Americans.  But I want to come before You on behalf of those of us who are Your children.  We have turned our country into an idol.  We worship anything and everything but You, even while claiming Your name.  I do this too, and it breaks my heart.

• We worship ourselves.  We value our own ideas and philosophies and perception of life.  We try to take control of our lives, as well as the lives around us.  We believe we are You.
• Even worse, we do that and claim it is Your way.  We confuse those who want to know You by presenting You as a god in our own image.  We forget that we are all made in Your image.
• We worship our money.  We buy our happiness and are confused by our misery.  We chose corporations over people; liberty over love.  We view ourselves as superior when we have money and inferior when we do not.  We listen to the wealthy… and demand to be listened to because we ourselves are wealthy.  You have allowed our entire nation to have great wealth, and we falsely believe we acquired that on our own.  We believe our money is You.
• We worship our power.  We tout our status as the greatest military power.  We demand “God bless America,” as if it is Your duty to do as we say.  We forget to call out to You, to allow Your transformation in our hearts so that we can BE a blessing.  We stomp around making demands and we claim that You are with us.  Even so, we know where You are.  You stand with the poor, the widow, the orphan, the disenfranchised, the outcast, the oppressed, the desperate.  And we are ALL outcasts and desperate and in need of You.  But we forget our standing and pretend our power elevates us.  We believe our power is You.
• We worship our privilege.  We think we have made good lives for ourselves and we forget that all good things come from You!  We damage people who do not enjoy our privilege and tell them to acquire the arrogance and lack of principle that got us where we are today.  We view the world as Us vs. Them, and we attack.  We pretend to be victimized to give ourselves justification to victimize others.  We believe our privilege is You.
• We worship the Law.  We know that Your way is the most excellent way.  We are filled with gratitude for all that You have done in our lives!  We revel in the freedom to choose You and follow You and live for You.  But we forget who we were before we found You… what slimy pits You pulled us from.  We think we pulled ourselves out by our bootstraps and we think a checklist of right behavior rescued us.  We forget that our righteousness is filthy rags in Your sight and that only You can bring righteousness to our hearts.  We demand the letter of the law from others and from ourselves, and we reinvent you as an angry God waiting to strike us down or as a lenient God waiting to give us neverending chances.  Meanwhile, You wait with patience and longsuffering, calling us to the real You.  The You to whom You added flesh and bones who walked among us.  Your son, Jesus.  We have His example, but we still set up our checklists to earn a way to You.  We give up our freedom and enslave ourselves AND everyone around us.  Instead of loving You and following You from a place of freedom, we do it out of duty, fear, and arrogance.  We believe that our interpretation of You is You.
• We worship our political ideology.  We join political parties and lobby groups and proclaim them far and wide.  We align ourselves fully to their ways and pretend that we are serving You.  We look to majorities and leaders and  pundits and rhetoric for truth and believe the lies.  We believe that political power is You.
• On top of that, we claim our faith aligns with our politics and lobby groups.  Of course You know that it doesn’t and we used to know that it doesn’t… but we lie to ourselves so often that we now believe faith and politics are entwined!  We use that to justify our worship of politics.  We try to contain You to a set of ideals and forget that You cannot fit into any package we create.  We deem ourselves the creators and forget that only You are Creator.  We do terrible things and say that we represent You.  And You love us anyway.  You make an everlasting covenant with us, drawing us into Your family and giving us roles as heirs to You, the King.  Even though we riot and coup and try to upstage Your Kingdom and establish our own.  We believe that we are You.
• We worship our military might.  We trust in our own ability to provide our safety.  We seek revenge when we are threatened.  Our national leadership must make decisions for all Americans, but those of us who love You?  We have yet to place our trust in You for our security.  We look anywhere and everywhere else for ways to handle it on our own. We cling to our weapons, whether tangible or verbal, and we fight.  We believe our might is You.

For these atrocities and many others, please forgive us.  We beg forgiveness for our idolatry.  There is no place for idolatry when we KNOW You!  We have the Lord God as our Father and we enjoy the privilege of being Your children and we still look elsewhere for idols to worship!  Remind us of our freedom in You.  Change our hearts, change our minds, change us from the inside out.  For the glory of Your Name, not ours!