Boy, do I wish I knew then what I know now.
The ignorance and arrogance of youth. We all learn at our own pace. But here’s what I’ve come to understand at 56 that I didn’t grasp at 16, 26, or even 46: wisdom is infinitely more important than knowledge. You can know a lot of things and still be deeply, dangerously unwise.
Biblical wisdom isn’t academic. It’s relational. It flows from a living, breathing connection with the God who is wisdom in His very nature.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10)
That is the foundation. Not intellect. Not experience. Not a college degree or a corner office. Reverence for God. If you want to be wise, if America wants to be wise, it starts on our knees.
And right now, we desperately need wisdom. Because the battle for this nation is no longer just at our borders. The greatest threat is within.
The War We Didn’t See Coming
For decades, an ancient strategy has been quietly at work inside American culture. It didn’t announce itself. It didn’t fire a shot. It raised doubts.
Sound familiar? It should. It’s the oldest playbook in existence.
In the Garden, the serpent didn’t openly declare war on God. He simply whispered: “Did God actually say…?” He questioned Divine authority. He suggested that human wisdom could supersede Divine command. And it worked.
That same serpent’s strategy is alive and thriving in America today.
It doesn’t look like an invasion. It looks like a curriculum. A policy. A hashtag. A television show. A university lecture hall. It infiltrates slowly, through the institutions we trusted, through the entertainment we consumed, through the language we allowed to be redefined.
And it always uses the same disguise: compassion.
“Who are you to say there are only two genders?” “Who are you to insist that rights come from the Creator, not the government?” “Isn’t it more loving to simply accept everything?”
This is the serpent’s signature move, weaponizing compassion against truth. Making you feel like standing for something is the same as being against someone. Making you feel like conviction is cruelty.
It is a masterful lie. And millions of Americans, including millions of believers, have believed it.
What Our Fathers Bought With Their Blood
Make no mistake: this is not the first existential crisis in 250 years of American history.
We have faced this before. And the cost of getting it right was staggering.
A bloody Civil War affirmed what our Founders declared, that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights. Not government-granted rights. Creator-endowed rights. Rights that no legislature can give and no executive order can take away.
That truth was sewn into the soil of this nation with the blood of 620,000 Americans. They didn’t die for a political party. They died for a principle that this nation, under God, would not fracture under the weight of a lie.
And now, in 2026, the lie is back. More sophisticated. More seductive. More deeply embedded in our institutions than ever before. External adversaries didn’t just threaten us from afar. They planted seeds inside our culture, our academia, our media, our government. And those seeds have taken root. The chaos we see is not random. It is fruit.
The question is: what are we going to do about it?
Life Comes Down to Two Truths and a Lie
Here’s what I know now that I didn’t know then. Life, real life, eternal life, boils down to two truths and a lie.
Truth #1: There is life after death.
After our time on Earth, we continue for all of eternity. And we inherit either utopia or damnation through one consequential decision. Jesus didn’t mince words about this. In Luke 10:25-37, the Parable of the Good Samaritan, He made it plain: love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. That is the path to eternal life. That is the inheritance.
Truth #2: While you’re here, it’s not about you.
This one stings. Because our culture, the very culture the enemy has spent decades reshaping, tells us the opposite. Self. Self. Self. My truth. My story. My rights. My comfort.
But Jesus modeled something radically different. In John 8:1-11, when the religious elite dragged a woman caught in adultery before Him, they were ready to condemn. Jesus knelt in the dirt and refused. He didn’t condone her sin. But He didn’t destroy her either. He looked at her with dignity and said, “Go, and sin no more.”
That is our assignment. Not to condemn. Not to shrink back in silence either. But to be so compellingly different, so rooted in grace and truth, that people become curious about what makes us that way. We must be attractive, not off-putting. Winsome, not weaponized.
We serve others so that they, too, may want to know Truth #1.
The Lie: You can build a life, a family, a nation on anything other than God’s authority and natural law.
You cannot. History is not ambiguous on this point. Every civilization that abandoned the fear of God eventually consumed itself. The chaos we are watching unfold in America right now is not a political problem with a political solution. It is a spiritual problem with a spiritual solution.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
For Such a Time as This
Here is the hard truth, friend: the sidelines are no longer a morally acceptable option.
You are a professional. You have a family. You love this country. And you believe, or you’re beginning to, that there is something greater than yourself at work in history. That means you have been positioned, like Esther before the king, for such a time as this (Esther 4:14).
The enemy has been strategic. We must be wiser.
When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, alone, hungry, vulnerable, the devil didn’t come with a sword. He came with suggestions. Shortcuts. Twisted Scripture. And Jesus responded the same way every single time:
“It is written.”
“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)
That is our weapon. The Word of God. Not hatred. Not fear. Not partisan rage. The Word, wielded with courage, spoken with love, lived out in our homes, our workplaces, our school boards, our communities, our votes.
This Is Your Moment
God never withholds wisdom from those who ask with a sincere heart. James 1:5 promises it plainly: ask, and He gives generously, without finding fault. That promise is for you. Right now. In this season.
America doesn’t need more informed bystanders. She needs activated believers. Men and women who know the two truths, have rejected the lie, and refuse, absolutely refuse, to hand a spiritually bankrupt nation to their children and grandchildren.
You didn’t ask to live in this moment. But you do. And that is not an accident.
The blood of those who came before us is not calling us to comfort. It is calling us to courage.
Get off the sidelines.
Lean into Truth #1: Anchor your eternity. Live out Truth #2: Serve your neighbors fiercely. Denounce the Lie with wisdom, with grace, and without apology.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And wisdom, real, biblical, God-breathed wisdom, is exactly what America needs from you today.
Do you want to go deeper? Start with The Family Wins (TFW) Devotional, a Christ-centered resource I personally gift to families who are ready to build their lives on something that lasts. Reach out, and I’ll get one in your hands.
MindWolves 