Freedom Isn't Free

"God Bless the U.S.A." by Lee Greenwood and the USAF

Some thoughts for the 4th of July. We have so much to be thankful for. We live in a free country, and we've been blessed beyond measure.

We have clothes on our backs, food in our stomachs, and a roof over our head...we have the freedom to stand and salute the flag, because so many fought and died for us so that we could live here in freedom. Or we have the freedom to kneel and not salute if that is what we think we should do, because we don't believe in what our flag represents. We have that right to make that choice because we live in freedom...because so many died so we could have that freedom...kind of ironic, isn't it?

We have the freedom to work, play, pray. Freedom to pursue our dreams, attend the colleges of our choice, freedom to worship, freedom to live in safety and peace. Or we have the freedom to protest when we don't like the way things are done so that we can make a point.

But all of our freedoms could so easily be lost if we don't realize the value of what we have.
On this 4th of July, Independence Day, May we take the time to be thankful for these freedoms and recognize what is at stake here. There is no greater country in the world than America. Even with all our problems, we still have the freedom to choose how and where we will live.

For those who don't appreciate what you have here, perhaps a trip to places around the world where others are wishing they could live in America would help. Go to Africa, Somalia, China, Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, just to name a few.
Spend time in the jungles, deserts, war torn lands where thousands of people are starving and dying everyday from government imposed sanctions against their own people. Spend a day in an African village where children are dying for lack of water and food, living in a mud hut in the middle of the heat of the desert, naked and swollen from famine. Then come back here and tell us we shouldn't celebrate our freedoms or that America is not a good place to live.

But let me just make this one suggestion, until you have experienced what it would be like to live in a country where there are no such freedoms, and where people are dying for just a drink of water and would
gladly come and eat the crumbs from under your table just so they could survive, please don't put down our nation. Please don't bite the very hands that have been feeding you and taking care of you since the day you breathed your first breath.

Please don't be so ready to destroy what so many have fought long and hard to protect for the sake of millions who do appreciate it...Take a moment to be thankful you were born in America, where at least you are free.

It could so easily have been you who was born in that mud hut in Africa, or that jungle in Asia or South America. It could so easily have been you who was shot down in a war ravaged village in the middle of the desert.

I, for one, am extremely thankful to be an American. I pray we never lose these freedoms that we have taken for granted and taken advantage of. We are so blessed beyond measure...even the poorest people of America are better off than many people in this world.
So count your blessings and thank God that you live in the U.S.A.

Postscript: I wrote the above this afternoon on my Facebook page, after reading someone's tirade about how we should not celebrate the 4th of July, and how ashamed we should be of our country.  The worst part of this is that the person who wrote it is someone who has had a life of great "privilege" and has been blessed more than many...but that person does not attribute that blessing to God...no, that person doesn't believe in God. That person lives in a home that was literally a gift, paid for by the hard work of generations of people who did not take their freedom so much for granted. People who would always stand for the National Anthem, and were proud to be Americans.  But this person believes there are far better countries than America in which to live. However, that person has never, to my knowledge, traveled outside of the eastern seaboard of the United States. If they had, they never would say these things about America being so terrible a place to live in. They would be kissing the very ground they were given to live on, debt free and paid for. My heart breaks to read the kind of hatred and vitriol coming out of the mouth of one so blessed. But this person thinks we are the problem. We are the ones filled with hatred.  

What is really sad is this person is just an example of what so many of that generation seem to think and feel. They are blinded to the truth of what is truly an injustice in our society today. But I don't want to go there and cause further division.

I pray for healing of our nation, our people, our hearts.  However, as most of us here already know, there can be no healing in our nation until there is first repentance in our hearts.  I know we all have our own personal issues and feelings about what is right and what is wrong with our nation today. But God gave us a way to heal our land.  It is found in 

2 Chronicles 7:13-15

13 "When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, 

or send pestilence among My people, 

14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, 

and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, 

and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 

15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place."

I know we've all read that verse many times, or have heard it preached upon often...but it is the only remedy for our current situation in our land. My prayer is that we will all think about these things during our Independence Day celebrations this weekend, and as we celebrate our freedom, let us humbly pray and seek God's face, repent of our own wrong-doings, and be a part of the healing and not a part of the division.  At least that's my prayer for me.  

Have a blessed and wonderful 4th of July weekend! Even if we can't be together with everyone we'd like to be with, try to do something special to celebrate our freedom!