As I watched some excerpts from Trump’s second Impeachment Trial, it seemed to me that the voices expressed in the Senate Chamber merely echo the millions of voices outside that chamber. One side is convinced they are righteous and the other side is evil. While the other side is convinced it is righteous and the other side is actually the evil one. 

This is not merely about right and wrong. Although at its core right and wrong hang in the balance. But what precede one’s inability to detect right and wrong is the fog of self-deception. And that self-deception is driven by one sin that resides in the soul of each person within the impeachment chamber.  Pride has taken center stage in this trial, both in the chamber, and outside it in the hearts of millions across this land. 

We each remain convinced that we are right, and the other guy is wrong. We are righteous, the others are evil. And based on our particular standard, perhaps that is true. 

But our standard is never the right standard. Our positions are never completely righteous. In fact, if there is any degree of impurity in me, then I am not pure. And likewise, the same applies to any who would throw stones at those they despise.  Let’s not forget, to despise is merely one shade of gray removed from the black of hate. And to hate is to kill in one’s heart, whether the blow is struck outwardly or not. 

So if we are all impure, and self-deceived, when embracing our unique standard, which is the standard by which we should measure ourselves (first)?  It is an external, abiding, and eternal standard that does not change from person to person, or nation to nation. 

God’s standard which affirms you and I are both unrighteous is that unbending and non-negotiable standard. We are all filthy. Were our thoughts and actions to be put on trial in our own “Impeachment Trial” we would all be found guilty. I don’t know the specifics of your guilt, nor do I need to know. All that matters for me, is that my guilt and filthiness exceeds any righteousness I might outwardly display. And all my finger pointing at my political foes, could never make right the impurities in my life. 

So what is it that you, and I, and America needs more than anything at this time?  

Humility. The opposite of what we see on display in our lives and across every bit of media every day: Pride. Pride. Pride. 

But we should remember this about the original and universal sin:

“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs‬ ‭16:18‬

 “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” James‬ ‭4:6‬ 

So rather than remain transfixed by all of the finger pointing and puffiness being displayed by our nation’s leaders this week, we should chart a new course, and consider some old advice.  

The date was June 28, 1787 and our nation’s founders had been locked in a dispute for several weeks over the specifics of our founding.  So Benjamin Franklin arose and shared the following words, which we would do well to reread, and take heed:

“The small progress we have made after 4 or five weeks close attendance & continual reasonings with each other — our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ays, is methinks a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the Human Understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those Republics which having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist. And we have viewed Modern States all round Europe, but find none of their  Constitutions suitable to our circumstances.

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“In this situation of this Assembly groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection. — Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance.

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“I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that “except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall be become a reproach and a bye word down to future age. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human Wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.

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“I therefore beg leave to move — that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service.

Prayer, humility, and looking upwards to God to confess my own imperfections, instead of outward to point out my neighbors’ faults, is where we must begin. Anything short of this will merely quicken the demise of a once influential nation.