In whom do you trust?

“In God we trust” is printed on our money. It’s written into the fourth verse of our national anthem. And it’s implicit in the very form of our government; or, at the very least, a fundamental distrust of human nature is what formed our system of checks and balances. No one person or group of people is allowed ultimate power in this country. At least, that’s the goal. And we know — or we should remember — that even this system of checks and balances is not infallible. It’s just the best thing that flawed humans have come up with so far to keep us from destroying ourselves.

I have said it many times before, and I will say it many times again: ultimate goodness and hope have to come from beyond us. Beyond our little groups and governments, beyond our attempts to deal with the universe, beyond even the universe itself. The Uncaused Cause. The Unmoved Mover. The one whose name is I Am. Let’s be like King Darius at the end of the story: presenting our petitions to the God of Daniel.