America the Beautiful

I listened to a song this morning, a beautiful and moving song...a recent rendition of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” with Home Free and Air Force Singers.  I found myself praying as I listened, “Oh God, we need your blessing on this land more than ever before in my lifetime!”  

As the chorus sounded -
“And I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free”..., well, pride wasn’t what I was feeling.

I’ve never sensed an egotistical arrogance in these words anyway, but rather, much like what a parent would feel as he looks at the wonderful man his son has become.  He beams, and his heart floods with joy to see the hard-working, loving individual that cares and provides for his own family and others, unselfish and good. He sacrifices and gives back, grateful for who he is and all he has. He loves God. He loves people.  And the parent is “well-pleased”, proud.  

The Father expressed this for Jesus, His only beloved Son, at Jesus’ baptism. God the Father spoke from heaven saying:  “this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17). It brought joy and honor to the Father to know that the beloved Son was willing and committed to fulfil His plan and purpose in providing redemption for all mankind, even though it cost Him dearly.  It was love personified, and the Father was “well-pleased”.  

That’s the emotion that the song had always stirred...thoughts of humility and blessing and gratitude. You could say I was proud, or “well-pleased” with my heritage.  I didn’t do anything to deserve being born in this country. Yet I was, and I have enjoyed and appreciated so much of it’s beauty and opportunity, it’s freedoms.  I was taught to appreciate them.  Maybe some have not been.  Or maybe they’ve only seen a side of America that doesn’t foster that sentiment.  

But this morning an array of emotions stirred in me.  Humility, gratitude, sadness, anger, shame, bewilderment.  I was more perplexed than pleased. This year, 2020, the year the world went mad, it just all seems so surreal.  So much change, yet so little change.  So much prosperity and greatness, yet so much poverty and perversion of justice and everything that is right and good.  So much opportunity and possibility, yet numbers still hopeless and disadvantaged.  Such shows of sacrifice and courage and consideration and healing, yet so much hurt, hostility, and unrest.  I hate the division and destruction.  I hate there are those that don’t know peace, only anger and bitterness.  I hate there are those that cause it.  

Yet at the same time, I love the show of the human spirit. Love is powerful. Forgiveness is powerful.  Mercy is powerful.  And I believe God is moving as people allow these powerful forces of God to be at work in and through them. When it is easy to look around and be afraid and confused and disheartened, I want to see that God is doing a great work in all of this. His Word promises that “He works all things together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose”(that all-famous Romans 8:28).  And He also proclaims that His purposes will be accomplished; “The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand” (Isaiah 14:24).  

I want to be a part of that work of faith over fear, of a compassion that compels merciful actions, and a love that just won’t quit because someone doesn’t want or understand my love for them.  

The problem is not the American ideal. The problem is the human heart.  And the human heart needs a Savior no matter the country.  And even the person that has experienced the love of Jesus needs a fresh perspective every now and then, a fresh measure of the great grace of God to wash over us and open our eyes and ears of understanding.  We need patience.  We need to listen.  We need supernatural, divine intervention.  We need God’s protection, God’s provision, God’s wisdom, God’s immeasurable, unexplainable, undeniable love flowing to us and through us to others.  We need His grace and mercy moving in our own hearts to be able to show it to others.  We need His ways and His wisdom like never before guiding the choices we make and the actions we take.  It is not an easy time to be a believer.  To be black.  To be white.  To be a Native American.  To be Asian.  To be Muslim.  To be Jewish. To be hispanic.  To be mixed.  To be human!  

But it can still be all that God would have it be.  It can still be beautiful.  As followers of Jesus, we have a stewardship in the country, in the place in which we live.  God would have us be faithful in this stewardship, being responsible and respectful, prayerfully aware of our world and its great need, trusting Him to see us through what He brings us to.  We may be called on to sacrifice and submit to the authorities over us.  We may be called on to contend for the faith and freedoms that are God-given...and we MUST know what those are and aren’t.  It’s time to think about what it means to be Human...not just American. 

My mother-in-law said this morning when I wished her a Happy 4th of July, “I shudder to think what next year’s Independence Day will be like.”  It may be very different. I may have to make some adjustments, ones I don’t like.  I may have to do things a little differently.  I am grieved to think that I may not be able to worship and fellowship freely, share Christ openly.  Even though the reason it is happening is supposed to be for the greater good, the way I worship and fellowship is being affected, changed.  The way I live my life, the way I work and shop and enjoy family and community events is changing. It’s a strange feeling that makes me uncomfortable. Is it temporary?  Time will tell. In the meantime, Satan is often getting the upper hand in the division and distance and disunity being created.  

In Luke 7, Jesus was moved with compassion when he saw a grieving widow about to bury her only son.  Without being asked or sought out, Jesus approached the pall, touched the man, and he lived again.  “Then fear came over everyone, and they glorified God saying, A great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited his people” (v.16). God has visited his people!  Some versions render this, “God has come to help His people.”  What a wonderful, glorious thought!  Oh God, visit your people again.  Bless your people once again.   

How I need it, a glorious, powerful visit from God bringing help and healing in a troubling time. I pray for it, look for it. Jesus brings true freedom and blessing.  And I celebrate it, today and everyday.  But today, enjoy all the food, the family fun, the fireworks, all of it ...I am.  But also take some time to reflect, be grateful.  And pray.  Pray for others.  Pray for peace and unity.  Pray for protection of freedoms.  Pray about how you can be involved in making a positive difference. 

Pray that God will visit His people again.   

Shifting Sands

From being at the Banks (Outer Banks, NC) to battling a blizzard! Whew, things sure can change quickly, can’t they? Just a week or so ago we were enjoying the warm October ocean breezes and mild temps. But at least this year it was not snowing when we arrived home to WV. Well, not for a couple of days at least! It was 70 degrees in fact, on Friday before the storm hit on Monday night, plunging temps, blowing down power and phone lines, and dropping over a foot of snow in our neck of the woods. Superstorm Sandy, Frankenstorm, or whatever else it may have been called, it whipped through just the same. And we got only a taste of the terrible affects many are feeling along the coast and especially further north.

Some changes are like that storm. There are ways to prepare, at least as much as possible. Then you batten down and try to ride it out. Afterwards though, there’s always the cleanup, sometimes devastation. And when storms hit the Banks that I love, it’s never the same afterwards. It’s still beautiful, and there are evidences and even markers of past seascapes, yet the change is obvious. We had to cross a makeshift bridge this trip on Route 12 that I had never crossed before, over the ‘new’ inlet that was created when the last hurricane went through. And while there was a lot that was familiar some is changed forever.

Much of the change has been subtle as year after year shifting sands creep ever closer to the road, the one road on and off the barrier isle. Bulldozers are a regular sight in recent years pushing back the growing mountains of sand, trying to keep the roadway clear. Wild sea oats and grasses grow in patches, and fences jut out along the crest of the dunes to slow the drift, and attempts are made to keep beach erosion at a minimum. Yes, subtle change is continuously taking place, but is very obvious to those of us who only manage to make the occasional trek every year or so. Some businesses have closed, new ones opened. Some have moved location. Some cottages have been washed into the ocean. Some roads and resorts are no longer along the shoreline. There’s still sun and surf to be had and life goes on. But many of the locals feel the pinch and the impact of “changing tides”.

And today, Election Day 2012, it’s all about change in this country isn’t it? Hasn’t that been the mantra of the times for a while now? Sometimes though, I get the feeling that the change we’ve experienced in this country is that devastating kind. Much like when that coastal hurricane hits. You are warned it’s coming, you think you’re prepared for it, you’ve survived them before and they really weren’t all that terrible. Sure some things were different afterwards, but it didn’t disrupt your life to any great degree. Then, years go by and you wake up one morning only to see, as if for the first time, things are nothing like they were. And it’s not good. In fact the change is so detrimental that your whole livelihood is at stake. Everything you know and understand to be your home, well, it doesn’t feel so much like that anymore. The effect of all the change over time is overwhelming to even consider. It’s that “wow, what happened?” kind of feeling.

Change is good, but it has to be the right kind. Some things definitely need to change. The frustration is that more time seems to be spent on the fight about who gets to decide what the right kind of change is than actually seeing any real positive change take place. In the meantime, we’re like drifting dunes, shifting ever so subtly that until it’s “bulldozer time”, it’s hardly noticeable that the change that has taken place is causing massive damage and requiring incredible cleanup.

“Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket , and are counted as the small dust on the scales; To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? To whom then will you liken Me, or to whom shall I be equal? says the Holy one. Lift up your eyes on high…” from Isaiah 40.

I lift up my eyes today to the sovereign, just, and loving Creator God. I pray, I act responsibly as His word directs, seeking to honor Him and impact others with His love and truth; and I trust. I trust Him to engage in the affairs of this world as He sees fit. I trust Him to care for His own as He has promised, no matter the shifting sands.