Who Will Stand in the Gap?

If you've been reading here with any regularity over the past month, you likely know I am studying the book of Ezekiel with my Precept class.
You've probably also noticed this book is affecting me in significant ways.
And, wow, it just keeps going.(!)
That is to say, I have just finished the lesson over chapter 22 and I think I have now read the saddest verse in all of scripture.
Check this out:

"I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one."

~Ezekiel 22:30

OK, so I have had a cursory awareness of the phrase "stand in the gap".
I vaugely remember it being the theme of Promise Keepers 22 years ago. (Thanks, Google, for that piece of information.)
What I mean to say is, I've heard the phrase used in the context of Christians praying.
But seeing the phrase in the biblical context - from which it has been taken all the other times I've heard it used - absolutely wrecked my heart!
Let me set the scene for you.
The first 29 verses of Ezekiel 22 call for Ezekiel to pronounce judgment on Jerusalem because of all her abominations. That is, the first two verses make that declaration. The following 27 give detail to the lewdness which had defiled the city. The abominations are all laid out which were done by the rulers of Israel, the slanderous men, the prophets, the priests, the princes, and the people of the land.
It's a long list!
And then comes verse 30. I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.

What is God saying there???

If HE had found somebody who was praying for Jerusalem, who was agonizing over her wickedness and begging Him for mercy, would He have really spared the land?
(See Exodus 32:11-14 and Psalm 106:19-23.)
As it is, He found no one.
And then we get to verse 31.

"Thus I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads," declares the Lord GOD.

The sadness of this circumstance consumes me.
The LORD was looking for someone who would stand in the gap before Him. Someone who would agonize over the sin of the land and beg Him for mercy, so He would not destroy it. HE was looking for someone who cared!!!
And He found no one.
No.One.
Oh! Does that fact break your heart like it breaks mine?
And does it stir your heart for the United States like it stirs mine?
If we were to record the ways our rulers have despised the things of God, the lewd acts done by our slanderous men, the lives destroyed by present-day false prophets, the violence done to God's law by our "men of the cloth", and the dishonest gain amassed by our fine young men *ahem* - I fear the list would be very, very long.
But if - per chance - God still has an ounce of mercy in His heart for us, if He hasn't come to the end of His longsuffering patience toward us, if He will still forgive and is searching the land for someone who will build up the wall and stand in the gap?
Oh, LORD, here I am!!!
Please hear my cries for this nation.