Dear Friends,
As I see it, we are all works-in-progress; sinners, moving toward Christian Perfection (a Wesleyan doctrine). We will enjoy moments of at-one-ness with God in this life, but until we have reunited with our Creator in the afterlife, those moments are only temporary. America is a work-in-progress, too. Our ancestors supplied a solid foundation on which each subsequent generation could build. To believe her to be a finished product; to rest on the achievements of our ancestors without the willingness and a determination to offer change through improvement is not only to counter the ideals which led to her formation, but it is to limit her effectiveness and promise for tomorrow.
What would have happened if our ancestors had overlooked the big picture and ignored the future in favor of personal gratification? The signers of the Declaration of Independence were people of integrity, courage and vision. They defied the strongest nation on earth, Great Britain. When they drafted and signed the Declaration, they didn’t know if they would be supported by the colonists. They knew that many of them would not support them, in fact. But nothing about the document they crafted was vague or uncertain. Its very existence pointed to plain, unadulterated treason, punishable by death. The men who signed it knew without question that they were placing their property, their families and their lives in
danger. Even so, they wrote their names on it. America was created by men and women who valued opportunity more than they valued security. They accepted innumerable risks in order to push for change; in order that they might enjoy the fruit of their own labors; in order that their children and grandchildren might be given the opportunity to do the same.
To honor our forefathers and mothers, today’s America must consist of a citizenship that understands the meaning and the responsibilities of freedom. What we have and what we cherish isn’t a passive freedom from something—from want or fear or trouble or injustice—but an active, dynamic freedom for something: freedom to work out our course in life. Ours is a freedom not to sit back and enjoy, but to use in building a better country and a better world.
I would like to see an America whose citizens recognize that her greatness doesn’t lie in her high standard of living, but in her high standard of life; a standard that has been handed down to us by generations of Americans who understood their worth in terms of what they were, rather than what they had. The majority of our ancestors were foremost concerned with the spiritual and religious values they passed to their children and grandchildren. Do you know what percentage of Americans are active in church today? You don’t want to. It’s depressing. Families aren’t praying together anymore. Even though a huge majority acknowledge a faith in God, they don’t talk about Him to each other. If not in church and not at home – and certainly not in school -- where will our children learn about God?
I would like to see an America made up of people who recognize that her security lies is the responsibility of each individual citizen—not in a figurative sense, but in reality. In order to preserve our freedom, we have to prove that a free people can, through voluntary effort, continue to accomplish even more than those societies held together by socialism or communism or military dictatorship. We are a volunteer nation, but we can’t afford to have a volunteer mind-set, if that mind-set enables us to avoid a sense of responsibility. The ever-growing attitude which encourages us to focus first and foremost on ourselves rather than the good of the whole is absolutely detrimental to the sacrificial foundation that under girds all of our most basic institutions, on a national scale, with regard to a church, and in a family unit.
We are works in progress, in every aspect of our lives. We can’t sit still and be satisfied with what we have and what we are. We can’t simply concentrate on preserving what is. We have to be willing to risk. We have to be willing to change. As it was with our American ancestors; as it was with those who began the Church 2000 years ago; we must be VISIONARIES, preparing for, a tomorrow most of us will never see. Happy Birthday, America! And blessings to all of you!
Robin