Harvest America Blog  

A thousand points of light: It’s a phrase we as Americans have come to understand as expressing the notion that a greater goal, a greater light, can be achieved as everyone shines from their respective place on the map. Peggy Noonan most famously employed it in a speech she wrote for former president George H.W. Bush. But its origin is most likely derived from C.S. Lewis, who in his book The Magician’s Nephew wrote, “One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out…”

There may be no better use for the term than associating it with Harvest America! As of this week, there will be 1,000 host sites dotting the national landscape that have agreed to become “points of light” in presenting the gospel on August 26.

Harvest America wasn’t undertaken solely to “save America.” Our mission is to proclaim the gospel, to be a light that shines in darkness, to provide a message of hope to those who are without God and without hope in this present world. But the outcome of presenting the gospel will be transforming. Lives will be changed. Hope will be restored in the lives of thousands. And because of this, America will be a better place as more of its citizens bow their knees to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

I was recently in the United Kingdom during the Queen’s 60th Jubilee celebration. It was a glorious occasion as, across the UK, Brits honored their queen in celebration and unity. It reminded me that there are merits to a monarchy, as political rifts and vitriol are set aside in submission to the person sitting on the royal throne. How we could use a dose of that today in American politics. Yet, that is how it was intended to be by our forefathers.

America wasn’t established under the rule of a sovereign king or queen passed down from generational bloodlines. Our forefathers anticipated and imagined a government where its citizens and its leaders willingly submitted to the One True King. For most of our founding fathers, that guiding light was Jesus Christ.

While Harvest America most likely won’t change our political discourse or alter the course of our nation, every point of light, every venue from which the light of the gospel shines forth on August 26, will bring change. There will be more than a thousand sites where Americans will submit their lives to Christ. Collectively, we will impact our nation.

That is our commission. We have not been tasked to save America, but to let the light of the gospel shine so that our neighbors and loved ones can find their way home! Our collective prayer might well come from one of America’s best loved hymns: “Stand beside us, and guide us, through the night with the light from above!”

May God bless America, indeed!