Beautiful

Amidst all the struggles in my heart this Independence Day, I look inside for what this day really means to me. One word claws its way to the top: gratitude.

As my friends over at PJCountry just learned, I'm not the greatest history scholar. But I still can look back with my layman's knowledge, and then pull it into the present. The tyranny our nation escaped is still alive and well, but not here.

In America, I can show up or not show up at the day's political festivities without fearing the repercussions. I can be a Christian without having to pay a special tax because of it. I can share my candid thoughts on this blog with my greatest legal worry being giving appropriate credit for the articles I share. And when the fireworks go off, I may wince... but logic can tell me that a war did not just break out in our streets. I can know that the vast majority of service members are trustworthy and won't harm me for the heck of it. And I have some of the best medical care in the world available to me.

America is a beautiful country, far beyond our mountains, prairies and oceans. This nation has an inner beauty that comes from dedication to worthy ideals and a freedom to be who we are. We have not always succeeded. Sometimes our nation has taken its eyes off of what is important. But even when mud-spattered and blood-stained, we have found our way through the remembrance of the freedom and the people we love.

And when we glibly invoke our constitutional rights, we should remember that in the big picture, living here is a wonderful privilege. God has blessed America. Have we?