For months “We, The
People’ have been witnessing the three ring circus that is Washington. During
this time many, beginning with the President and those who have ‘skin in the
game’ have become entrenched. The rest of us have either listened and shook our
heads, picked a side, or prayed that this nation, which is slowing being eroded
abroad and divided at home, survive. All desire leadership and answers. Yet the
longer we look to those elected or appointed to lead, the less we know. Whether
knowledge will stem the tide that threatens the fabric of the body politic,
shore up wounds, or help those who’s loved ones paid the ultimate price when
it was avoidable is uncertain. What is certain is that We, The People have a
choice!
The choice I’m speaking
of has nothing to do with who we should believe, what technology is best, or if
we are exceptional or not. The choice is to act as if 'It Can be Done’ instead
of continuing to lose or set aside the belief are forbears had that ‘Nothing is
Impossible!’
Our parents did the
IMPOSSIBLE and set us a great example. On this Memorial Day as we honor those
who served, I am posting my Memorial Day Memories with a fervent prayer that as
you read them, you find the courage to reclaim The American Dream our
Founding Fathers made a reality.
To Dream the Impossible Dream
Every year Memorial Day
is set aside to honor those who, by their military service, either are keeping
or have kept our country safe. For more years than I can count,
Memorial Monday was the day I took my Dad and Mom to lunch and thanked both of
them: Dad for serving in WW11, Mom for staying home as most of the women did,
to do all those unsung things that let those in harm’s way know that when they
returned America, the land of the free and home of the brave, would be there
for them.
Many years have passed
since Dad and Mom died. Yet on every Memorial Monday, a part of me yearns to pick
them up once again and drive to the pier in San Clement so we can sit outside,
enjoy the view, eat Clam Chowder served in bread baskets while I ask the
questions that led them to speak of the war, their time apart, and what
American meant to them. Even now, the memory of our annual ‘thank you lunches’
are so sweet that I find myself tearing up.
I’m sharing this with you because every Memorial Day as far back as I can remember, when the military song for each branch of the service was played perhaps one third of the audience stood to be honored. Yesterday was different. Where I previously would have seen my parents generation, mine, and some military who were my children’s age, now there were just a few there to be honored. Perhaps this was an anomaly, perhaps not. Either way, I found myself thinking about the situations our country is facing around the world, and at home, and wondered how ‘We, The People’ have become so blasé about our military that we allow our leaders to give excuses rather than lead.
I’m sharing this with you because every Memorial Day as far back as I can remember, when the military song for each branch of the service was played perhaps one third of the audience stood to be honored. Yesterday was different. Where I previously would have seen my parents generation, mine, and some military who were my children’s age, now there were just a few there to be honored. Perhaps this was an anomaly, perhaps not. Either way, I found myself thinking about the situations our country is facing around the world, and at home, and wondered how ‘We, The People’ have become so blasé about our military that we allow our leaders to give excuses rather than lead.
Aware that every nation
is the sum total of its inhabitants, I looked at myself and remembered Messiah
saying, in Matthew 6:21,
“For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.” So today, I urge you to
think about and plan for the country you want us to become for lack of planning
leads to inaction and as we have seen inaction, whether dealing with the
defense of this country or our people worldwide, leads to death.
In 1945 our military returned triumphant
because their sacrifice had made the world secure. Since the Korean War in 1953, America has not been involved in any military action where our objective was
completed. In all there have been dozens of military actions; each one less
successful than its predecessor, each one more costly in human lives and
suffering, dollars and cents than the one before it. Yet we continue to imagine
we can do the impossible while we place obstacles to the achievement of that
dream thus making it impossible to achieve.
Today it seems that 'We, The People' my have lost the vision of those who birthed this nation. Yet on a cold November 19th in
1863, President Abraham Lincoln stood at Gettysburg and said, “Four score and
seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this content a new nation conceived
in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are meet on a great
battle-field of war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a
final resting place for those here who gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a
larger sense, we can not dedicate –- we can not consecrate –- we can not hollow
–- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will
little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they
did here. It is for us the living, rather, to dedicate here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather
for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from
theses honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
gave the last full measure of devotion – that we highly resolved that these
dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom -– and that government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth.”
The issues facing the
country during Lincoln’s time seemed impossible to overcome. Yet,
they overcame, so let us take heart and put our trust in God who says, in 2
Chronicles 7:14, “…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble
themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, then I will
forgive their sin and heal their land.”
With God Nothing all Things Are Possible!
