Birthday of a Young Nation

July 4th.

Independence Day.  Our birthday, some say.

Birth brings pain with it, I recall my mother who encountered it when one or two of the the seven of us, including two sets of twins, emerged through her birth canal.

Pain pokes and penetrates for life and liberty.

Recall all the civil rights workers. 

Pain knocked often for them.

For the late Father William Cunningham and Eleanor Josaitis who founded Detroit's Focus:HOPE amid death threats, hate, and name calling.

Must be like earlier pioneers experienced in passage of the Voter's Rights Act, and, more.  Sanitation workers in the South.  Even, Rosa Parks on the bus and because she was so tired from a day's work, refused to get up for a White man.  Good for her! 

And, us!

Never give up, or give in!

The right to love is the lone right God gives us as we mark the U.S. birthday once more.

Rights can be controversial.

But love is not.

God's love invites people to stand up while others choose to silently sit and say nothing for the most vulnerable old or young in and outside the womb today.

Love is a foundational freedom freely given as a gift by the Creator. 

Founding fathers and mothers, for that matter, knew that.

Puritans pounded and pressed for furtherance of liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness.

Happy birthday, dear United States!

Bridge the gaps widening in wealth these days, lift up the poor and oppressed, serve selflessly, and, reconcile across isles for the common good beyond politicians' need to be right, to beat, and, to be above, and  over the other side. 

The millions without heath care should have it. 

We can all make that possible by sharing a bit of what we have been blessed with as a Nation. Those who have more, need to give more, my farming parents from Cheboygan and Port Austin, Michigan, always taught the seven of us at home.  Share a piece of the pie for peace sake!

Serve for a change.

As the founders fought for freedom.  And, the right to life, libery and the pursuit of happiness with a right to housing, to a job, to dignity that all matter.

You matter.

Others matter also, however.

And, the Savior stirs worth within and among us as the Maker embraces the one world and one globe God made.

Explode with enthusiasm for this land's freedom beyond the bang of fire crackers, guns and words of hate that live these days in the hearts and hands of so many angry souls.

Putting down vices and lifting up virtues of faith, hope and charity, prudence, fortitude, justice and temperance, and, strengths like these that give continual birth to the good ole USA work well as we find our way out of this "lost" Nation, blind so often to the common good beyond me, myself and I!