Canada Day Reflections

It has become customary that on July 1, Canada, I reflect, if only briefly, on my nation. Two years ago I wrote "On Canada Day and Kissing The Mailman." It was something of a mournful article in which I reflected on Canada's decision to elect the still-corrupt Liberal Party, despite years of waste, corruption and mismanagement. "This year, as I reflect on my country, I feel a bit like a man who has caught his wife kissing the mailman the day before they were to celebrate their anniversary. I feel no real desire to celebrate my nation today and am both disappointed and disillusioned. So I will take the opportunity to thank God for providing me a nation where, for the time being, I am able to raise my family to know and love the Lord. I thank God for freedom and safety. Perhaps in a week or two I will take some time to celebrate my nation, but not for now. The pain is still too fresh in my mind."

Last year I affirmed God's sovereignty, despite Canada Day falling only a few days after the reading into law of a new bill that guaranteed the rights of homosexuals to marry. And since that day, multitudes of gay Canadian couples have tied the knot. Already Canadians are dealing with the first homosexual divorce cases. Despite this gross violation of God's law, I took comfort in God. "I guess this year my confidence in God has increased and I know that all of these things merely point towards the truth of God's Word. Nations will continue to stray farther and farther from God. The Laws will become increasingly ungodly. Yet through it all, God is ever in control. I can't help but be reminded of Psalm 2. "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his anointed." But what is God's reaction to this? "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision." In their burning desire to do evil, the nations only make God laugh. He holds them in derision, knowing that He is supreme and that His purposes will prevail. And that is my comfort on this day."

Much has changed in the last year. Canada has elected a new government after the Liberal Party lost the confidence of parliament and was forced to call a new election. Canadians, finally reacting to the ongoing corruption of the Liberals, elected the Conservative Party and their leader, Stephen Harper, to a minority government. Harper claims to be a believer and the evidence seems to support his claim. To this point he has led the nation well. While he cannot roll back the clock on decades of the slow decline of Canadian morals and beliefs, he is making great strides in attempting to relieve some of the Canadian tax burden and in attempting to increase the accountability of governments. Should he be able to secure a stronger position in the future, it seems certain that he will continue to make good choices on behalf of this nation.

As I reflect this year, I realize again how important it is that I do not place my hope in men. It is foolish to grow too excited or too depressed when thinking about a country's leaders. For, as I suggested last year, it is God who is in control. He was in control when the Liberal Party was elected time after time, and He is in control now that the Liberal Party has been set down in disgrace. And this is where my confidence needs to be. Not in the fact that a Christian has ascended to the highest position in the country, and not that there seems to be no obvious Christian presence among the nation's rulers. Our confidence is that God rules even the mightiest of men, even if they do not submit to this rule. As we learn in the book of Daniel, the "Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will." For now he has given us Stephen Harper. May He extend His grace to this man.