THE FOURTH OF JULY

                                                 

So it was the fourth of July once more and we celebrated the anniversary of our nation’s beginning. Last Sunday I went to church, and they tried to set the tone for the week by singing, “America the beautiful.” The song always makes my heart swell with pride because it merges the two most important institutions in my life—my faith and my country. But lately, I sometimes wonder if we don’t need to give God a reason to bless America. For you see, America has done everything it can to distance itself from Him.

In verse three we sing in part “Who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life.” When I think of our country today, I find it hard to sing those words and correlate them to America. There used to be a firm connection there, but self-serving people want no part of God and country anymore. God and country made great partners for so long, but they want that partnership dissolved.  In time, as things get worse—and they will—they’ll come crawling back to God because he’s always been their bastion of last resort. Let’s hope he doesn’t hold grudges like we do.

There are many verses to the song “God Bless America” but most of us know only four. In one of the later verses that we seldom sing, are the words, “America, America, God shed his grace on thee. Till selfish gain no longer stain the banner of the free.” No, our heroes didn’t die for what we’re doing to our country now. They died so we could sing this song with pride and not have hypocritical thoughts about what we are singing and what we really are becoming.

In this country, we have always had this monumental task of keeping the peace and living harmoniously. Mainly, because we are a nation of immigrants that come from all over the world with many cultures, religions and traditions that people hold dear to their hearts and they are not always respectful of each other’s way of life. But the intent, when our government was formed, was to live and let live and to live in peace and respect for each other. The civil war was a great example of what happens when ideals clash and what it can lead to. This country was lucky to have survived that war, but we did, and it brought back some peace for a long time.  But now we see similar social problems rearing their ugly heads again, and we wonder—are we going to survive this time.

Back in 1971, what began as a Coke commercial, developed into a popular song. It was a catchy little song that kind of intrigued me, and not for the melody, but for what it said. The song was called “I’d like to teach the world to sing.” One verse I remembered in particular said, “I’d like to see the world for once all standing hand in hand. And hear them echo through the hills for peace throughout the land.” That’s what we all need in this country. Hand in hand instead of drawing lines in the sand. Our Christian faith, ingrained in our government, was once the catalyst that helped us achieve just what I am talking about. But now we want to get rid of it.