Dear friend,
I want to start with something that might surprise you.
I am not afraid for America right now.
I know that sounds strange. Because if you have been paying attention to the news — and I suspect you have been paying close attention — things look serious. The wars. The division. The economy. The leaders of the world meeting in rooms and making decisions that will affect your children and grandchildren. The sense that something big is happening and nobody in charge fully understands what it is.
I see all of that. I have been watching it closely. And I am still not afraid.
I want to tell you why.
The Pattern Scripture Keeps Repeating
If you read the Old Testament carefully; and I have been reading it for fifty years; you will notice something that most people miss. God does not restore nations that are comfortable. He restores nations that have been broken.
Not defeated. Not destroyed. Broken.
There is a difference. Defeated means the enemy won. Broken means God got your attention.
Look at Israel in the book of Judges. Over and over the same pattern repeats. The people get comfortable. They stop seeking God. Things start to fall apart. An enemy rises. The people cry out. God sends a deliverer. The nation is restored.
Then they get comfortable again. And the whole thing starts over.
Scholars call this the Judges cycle. I call it the most honest description of human nature ever written. Because it is not just Israel's story. It is every nation's story. Including this one.
America right now is somewhere in the middle of that cycle. Things have fallen apart enough that people are paying attention again. Churches that were half empty are filling back up. Young people who were told God was irrelevant are quietly asking questions their parents never asked. Prayer movements are happening on college campuses that nobody planned and nobody funded.
That is not a coincidence. That is what broken looks like right before the restoration begins.
What Is Actually Happening Right Now
I want to give you my honest read of this moment. Not the media's read. Not the politician's read. Mine. After fifty years of studying Scripture and watching the world.
America is being tested on three things simultaneously.
The first test is faith. Will the people who claim to believe in God actually trust Him when things get hard? Or will they panic like people who have no faith at all? The worry, the fear, the doomscrolling at midnight; that is not the behaviour of a people who genuinely believe God is in control. That is the behaviour of a people whose faith only works when life is comfortable.
The second test is unity. Not political unity. That is not coming anytime soon and Scripture never promised it. But the deeper unity that comes from shared values. Shared love of family. Shared belief that children deserve protection. Shared sense that some things are worth standing for regardless of the cost. That unity is being tested right now and it is holding in more places than the media will ever tell you.
The third test is patience. This is the hardest one. Because the restoration that Scripture promises does not come on your timeline. It does not come before the midterm elections. It does not come because the right candidate won. It comes when God decides the conditions are right. And not one moment before.
The people who fail this test are the ones who get tired of waiting and start trying to force the outcome themselves. That never ends well in Scripture. Ask Abraham what happened when he stopped waiting for God's promise and tried to make it happen his own way.
What Scripture Says Happens Next
I want to be honest with you. I do not know exactly what is coming. Nobody does. Anyone who tells you they have a precise timeline for what God is going to do is selling something.
But I know the pattern. And the pattern is consistent enough that I am willing to tell you what I see.
The pressure is going to increase before it decreases. That is almost always how it works. The test gets harder before the breakthrough comes. Not because God is cruel but because the breakthrough requires a level of desperation that comfortable people never reach.
The people who make it through are not the ones who were the strongest or the smartest or the most politically connected. They are the ones who kept praying when prayer seemed pointless. Who kept believing when belief seemed naive. Who kept showing up for their families and their communities when everything around them was falling apart.
Second Chronicles 7:14 is the most important verse in America right now. I have quoted it before and I will keep quoting it until it stops being relevant.
If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways — then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.
Notice it does not say if the right president wins. It does not say if the Supreme Court rules correctly. It does not say if the economy recovers or the border is secured or the media starts telling the truth.
It says if my people.
The condition is not political. It is personal. It starts with you. In your home. On your knees. In the quiet moments before the noise of the day begins.
That is where America gets restored. Not in Washington. In living rooms and kitchens and bedrooms where ordinary people decide that they are not going to give up on God just because things got hard.
What I Want You To Do This Week
Three things. Simple ones.
First, pray Second Chronicles 7:14 every morning this week. Out loud if you can. It takes thirty seconds. Do it anyway.
Second, find one person in your life who is losing hope and remind them of the pattern. Not with politics. With Scripture. Show them that this moment is not the end of the story. It is the middle. And the middle always looks the darkest right before the turn.
Third, put down the news for one hour every day this week. Not forever. Just one hour. Use that hour to read something true instead of something urgent. Your soul needs the quiet more than you know.
The test is not over. But tests end. They always end.
And what comes after this one — if the people of God hold their nerve and keep their faith — is worth everything the test is costing right now.
I believe that with everything I have.
God bless you and everyone you love.
— Father Thomas