The responsibility of liberty
Here’s a special Memorial Day thank you for all those who have offered their lives to defend the far-flung borders of America, to build a rock-solid wall around the freedom we hold so dear.
To those of you who serve and those who have given their lives, thank you! Ironically, your work makes it possible for homeland critics to caricature you… but let not the critics disturb you! [Humor alert: speaking of critics, who knew that Rosie O’Donnell & Khalid Sheikh Mohammad are the same person? Warning, don't eat lunch before looking, lol! Forgive me, Rosie, for laughing, but this is funny! :-)]
And, this is also a tribute for those who use their freedom as God intends: it is you who make it possible for America to continue as a nation in the eyes of God. As the song says, “I believe we will answer each to heaven, for how we live our lives in liberty.”
Liberty brings with it a great responsibility.
We dare not waste it on self-centered lives, lives of bloated comfort and material rule... As the great song says, in prayer, “Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law!”
So for those of you who serve in armed forces, and those of you who serve ‘in the full armor of God,’ helping this nation on the path to redemption and freedom, thank you!
And for those of you who read this, consider reading these poetic words as a prayer, today:
America, the Beautiful
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife.
Who more than self the country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!
O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!
O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life !
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy purer jubilee!
God bless you this day!
Selah.
p.s. update: a friend emailed me and asked me to post a caveat on this Memorial Day blog, just to ensure that no one mistakes my support for the idea of America as a blanket approbation for all the actions of America. It's a good point, and perhaps needs to be discussed more fully. All readers should know that I view America through a Providential lens, a lens which declares intent and judgment in the same breath: the cost of liberty is high, and the price of living in liberty is even higher, though far more subtle. The Christian understanding of freedom and liberty is one of obligation -- as Augustine might put it, freedom is the power to do right. Such empowerment carries with it divine demand, which I fully understand! My prayer is for our nation, and individuals within our nation, that we might enter that confirmation of soul "in self-control" and understand that liberty "in [divine] law," whether in the armed forces or not. In this understanding, such Memorial tribute can appreciate without baptizing [or Christianizing] American force. God knows we haven't always been right. And that's just the point: living in the right, the law that frees, takes hard work! I am grateful for those who have successfully walked this line, and strive for that kind of life in my inner person...
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