I’m Done Lamenting; You Should Be Too. Make 2026 a Year of Reforming Over Mourning – RedState
It’s that time again, the start of a new year. Some will mark it with a list of resolutions. Others will view this occasion as a premature end to the Christmas season, simply as the first annual holiday on the calendar. I want you to do something different. Make early 2026 a time when you actively pivot from deploring the fall of our nation re-form he.
For everything there is a season. As the book of Ecclesiastes tells us, there are “a time to be born and a time to die… a time to cry and a time to laugh… a time to tear and a time to repair… a time for war and a time for peace.
If our times are to be marked by a theme – as those of us who seek to “live no lies” experience it – the times of my existence are marked by a fatalistic song of mourning. We observe evil marching in every direction and put the greatest reactionary energy into wringing our hands and wailing “woe is us.” This should not be the case. How did Americans become cowards when our ancestors crossed the seas using wind power and faced the most formidable military force in history at the time to establish a nation in a distant frontier land overseas?
Today, in this place, law-abiding Americans like Daniel Penny are charged with crimes for protecting others from violent criminals. Officials who work for conservative administrations are indicted by prosecutors linked to Soros. Those who kill children in the womb are protected by law enforcement, while those who intervene on behalf of the fetus are arrested. Public school systems are bleeding communities financially and producing graduates who are ignorant of history, hostile to the truth, and contemptuous of the values on which the nation was built.
Years ago, John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and Democratic vice-presidential candidate, often spoke of two Americas. Turns out he was right. Americans were hounded with prejudice for their presence at the Capitol on January 6th. Yet the FBI is unable to track down Antifa and American Hamas, despite their frequent and ongoing acts of violence, in broad daylight. Progressive activists freely break laws, while conservatives must live in fear of losing their jobs, being stripped of their banks or platform, and perhaps even criminal prosecution for expressing beliefs that were the norm for most American generations.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) felt compelled to clarify that Americans in his state are allowed to walk away from violent crowds, rather than sit and helplessly wait for martyrdom, because there are people who think the most basic self-defense is controversial. The list is long for volumes. We choose to be the frog in the pot of water, and it boils.
We are a nation with laws on the books, but we sit idly by pretending that modern-day Bolsheviks and foreign invaders are exempt. Somalis are financially plundering the nation, while radical Islamists’ goals of conquest are enabled by those who believe evil is protected by the 1st Amendment. In no previous century would Americans have turned en masse so easily. Complaining about the situation does nothing to slow the cancerous spread of pagan-fueled progressivism that is devouring our homeland. THE do nothing lament This tactic is lazy, and too many of us are guilty of it. Professional mourners are useful for funerals, but do nothing to stop the advance of armies, change policies, or preserve worthy civilizations.
So I propose that as the calendar evolves, so will your attitude and decision-making. If you are reading this in the United States of America, you are the fortunate beneficiary of the sacrifices made by those who came before you. When did we abandon our heritage and entrust our institutions and civic power to transgressors who think gender is fluid, obesity is genuine, ordered liberty is bad, and math is racist? Who would have thought that people who celebrated child sexual mutilation were sensible enough to exercise responsible influence?
Obviously the ball is lost. Whining won’t get him back. We have to get back on the pitch and play as a team. It begins with a moment of introspection. Stop for a moment and ask yourself this question:
Will I be content to let the candle go out on my watch and leave freedom a simple tale that my descendants hear about as a vanished way of life?
How you answer this question reveals whether you are worthy of the stewardship entrusted to you by God and our ancestors.
Our enemies did not take control by crying and hiding. They are united and we can learn from their techniques. In 2026, adopt a new playbook.
-Has your church strayed from scriptural truth? Work to reform it, or go to where Christ reigns.
-Are your schools irresponsible? Turn off your family. Pressure pastors to report Christians who enroll their children there and build the political capital to make school boards fear God and parents more than teachers unions and evil activists.
-Is your workplace hostile to the truth? Hold fast to the truth, take legal action if you are persecuted, and strive to inspire boycott.
-Are your prosecutors and police chiefs refusing to enforce the law? Lead efforts to impeach and remove them from office. Call on more or fewer magistrates to restore order where activist magistrates have deliberately allowed, or directly sown, chaos.
-Is your local government tending toward a totalitarian impulse? Resist within the limits of the law. Rod Dreher offers a wise roadmap in his book titled Don’t Live a Lie: A Handbook for Christian Dissenters. He writes there:
Our cause seems lost… but we are still here! Today, our mission is to build underground resistance to the occupation in order to keep alive the memory of who we were and who we are, and to fan the fires of desire for the true God. Where there is memory and desire, there is hope. (p. 214).
Using the civic talents granted to us in this place and time is not theonomy. It’s common sense. To the overly pietistic critics who object to Scripture’s prediction that things will get worse before they get better, I grant this point and add that the biblical text nowhere commands or authorizes godly people to deliberately attempt to hasten the fulfillment of end-times prophecy. This is simply another way of attempting to immanentize the eschaton.
For people from all walks of life to understand my thesis, it is very simply this:
The time for irresponsible lament must end now. The way forward is not to complain but to campaign; not to lament, but to repent; not to hope for reform, but to move it forward.
Societies that recognize, respect and operate according to fundamental moral principles have a better quality of life, better educational results and offer more stability to the population. Working to restore such civic policy is literally loving your neighbor. Even the famous atheist Richard Dawkins – who devoted considerable energy to undermining faith in society – now recognizes the benefits of a Christian-informed polis.
“If you love darkness and are content to live in darkness and misery, then be content with little faith; but if you love the sun and wish to sing songs of rejoicing, sincerely hide this best gift, ‘great faith'” » wrote Charles Spurgeon, a great Baptist minister of the 19th century. Victory belongs to the Lord, but the responsibility to work toward righteous ends rests on our shoulders, as part of the continuing stewardship mandate given in Genesis.
In 2026, close Les Lamentations. Open Nehemiah. We have a civilization to defend, to rebuild, to manage responsibly and to bequeath to future generations.
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