Americans are waiting and hoping. We’re hoping for something and we aren’t exactly for sure what we are hoping for. Internally it’s always the hopes of something better around the corner.

Many of us grew up believing that if we worked hard, tried hard and stayed with it that life would work out and eventually become easier. The unfortunate dilemma that many Americans are facing is life is not any easier. Medical care continues to be an escalating crisis. Premiums steeply rise with an increasing cost regardless if you have a medical card.

Retirees are less and less retired. Old people are seen working everywhere trying to earn a few dollars to buy groceries or pay rent. Social Security tells us we can expect to draw fewer dollars in the future. State governments are in trouble from Illinois, to California, New Jersey, Connecticut and Kentucky. They among others are shuffling to figure out how to pay government retirees and their retired school teachers. Most retirees are now facing giving up some retirement pay and paying an increasing medical care cost.

Education continues to escalate in cost. Public Universities are demanding $20,000 to $40,000 a year and that’s just for tuition. Housing, food, books, transportation all increases the cost of education after high school. Most of America’s families don’t have a $100,000 lying around for a college degree. College loans are crippling America’s young people plus the back breaking interest payments.

In recent years we have been made aware of America’s water shortage. Towns and counties across America are struggling with old debilitated infrastructures, leaky pipes, mismanagement of funds and contamination.

In the meantime America’s pastime has moved beyond baseball and has become devouring each other.

Facebook and other outlets seem to have given everyone a place to say and do it all and it’s not making us better. Congress has never gotten along and political parties have always gone for each other’s jugular vein. Today, it’s worse. Social media, cable news, email and a zillion blogs, online news sources and more make it a point of distributing only the worse, even if it’s fake.

While all this is going on we are still spending billions in Afghanistan to try to keep control of a country that nobody can control. I wonder how much money we would have if we didn’t spend trillions on other nations? How much money would we have for our state government retirees and school teachers if our state governments didn’t raid and spend what these workers contribute on other projects? There is nothing right about that nor is it right that our government spends our Social Security dollars on wars and whatever else they please.

Easter is almost here and it’s coming just a bit early it seems this year. It’s not too early for Americans because we need to once again hear about victory over death and defeated living. The only real way that people can overcome adversity is to believe they can.

We have a lot to work out in this country. We need to work together to solve our mental health issues. We have to secure our schools and other vulnerable areas of society. We can fight all day about our issues and point fingers but we need to point them at ourselves first before pointing at others. Blaming everybody, a President or the Russians is getting us nowhere.

I was out in a country church not too long ago and they were singing an old time song with some of these words included, “It’s not my brother or my sister but it’s me ol’ Lord standing in the need of prayer.” There’s plenty of fault to go around. We elect people who promise one thing and do another.

Yet, as Easter approaches we have to remember there was only one perfect person who ever lived we are told in the Bible and that was Jesus. Of course, he was nailed to a cross.

That is exactly what we would do to Jesus today in America. We would nail him to a cross just as quickly as they did 2000 years ago. If we didn’t do it physically, we would do it via television, talk radio, fake news and all the rest.

The beautiful part of Easter is that the grave could not contain Jesus. He came back to life. Millions of people around the world have grasped this promise individually in faith and hope. It’s time for America to believe again. We need new life individually and as a nation. Easter is about all of this. The story is about victory over death and the grave. The story is about victorious living. It’s a good story. Americans need a good story.

Dr. Glenn Mollette is president of Newburgh Theological Seminary, Newburgh, Indiana, and his syndicated column is read in all 50 states. Contact him at GMollette@aol.com. Learn more at www.glennmollette.com. Like his facebook page at www.facebook.com/glennmollette.