We Need a Culture of Honor

America and the Church are both in dire straits, but there is hope. One of the messages that has been burning in my heart lately is about something that will help both America and the Church find healing and restoration: HONOR.

We need to return to a culture of honor.

“Honor” is a word that carries many different meanings. There’s no way I could ever address every aspect of “honor” in one blog post. So for the sake of simplicity, in this blog post, the kind of honor I want to talk about is this:

“esteeming highly, deferring to, and having respect for those who have preceded us in building or protecting the cause or organization we are involved in.” [1]

Championing any cause is a tough job. Building any organization is a tough job. It takes different forms:

• Mothers and fathers build families;
• Pastors build churches;
• Statesmen built our country;
• Soldiers, sailors, and airmen protect our country; and
• Faithful servants labor in all of these types of organizations to support and protect what has already been built.

But these people rarely receive the honor they deserve.

• We disrespect our parents.
• The hallway committee gossips and complains about the pastor.
• We curse our political authorities with our words (bringing curses upon ourselves, by the way).
• We disrespect and neglect our men and women in the military.
• We cast aside our faithful helpers–the Type B personalities, who don’t have an opinion, don’t want to lead, and just want to help and serve. (Even though nothing great could ever be built without people who will just be faithful and follow.)

And I’m preaching to myself just as much as to anybody else here. I am reaping countless benefits because others labored to make them possible. I could never name them all, but some examples include:

Then I continued with the same line of thinking in other areas of life:

• I have a good education because my parents worked hard to make sure I got to go to good schools.
• My parents taught me many wonderful things, including music. I would never be where I am today without my parents.
• I live in a free nation because so many thousands of soldiers–maybe hundreds of thousands?–have given their lives so I could be free. Some of them were just children when they died. Some were old. All of them were precious, and one drop of their blood is priceless.
• I worked for a wonderful, Fortune 500 company because one family built it in the 1800s.

The list goes on, and on, and on.

This was a real revelation to me. It just hit me all of a sudden how much I owe to those who have gone before me. Many people have poured out their blood, sweat, and tears to pave the way for the life I am enjoying right now.

But how often do we really stop to think about these things? How often do we care?

Somewhere, America and the Church both have forgotten to honor. We have forgotten the blood that was shed for our freedom. We have forgotten our fathers and mothers–the natural ones and the spiritual ones. We have forgotten even our political fathers–the founding fathers of this nation. Instead, we have sunk into disrespect, and we are so much poorer for it.

It’s time to return to a culture of honor. I feel this message so deeply in my spirit. I’m actually crying as I write this. Our forefathers–even the ones that are still alive–have gone long enough without our honor, without our support, without our prayers.

I urge you today: Would you join me in returning to a culture of honor?

Would you help me honor our authorities, simply because God commands it and has allowed them to be in authority? Whether we agree with them or not? (That means that if you disagree with them, you pray for them, not curse them.) Would you join me in honoring our pastors and their families, who have literally sown their lives so we could reap a spiritual harvest? Would you join me in honoring our biological and spiritual parents?

Father God, strengthen those who have been fighting all these years. [2] Teach us to honor them. Bring them the harvest they have longed for in these days.

America has lost her culture of honor. But we can get it back. My dear Christian friend, you can be the one whom God uses to restore a culture of honor into your world.

Do you agree that we have lost our culture of honor? If so, what are some ways we can return to honoring the fathers, authorities, and protectors that God has placed in our lives? I’d love to hear your ideas. Leave a comment below!

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[1] Jamie’s Authorized-and-defined-by-herself Version.

[2] Lou Engle prayed this phrase in this YouTube video, about the Elijah Revolution. I highly recommend it.