Choose your Path Wisely

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

~Nelson Mandela


My path is to be an active part of creating a nation, then a world, where every child is lavished with a love that embraces diversity and rejoices in what makes each and every one of them wonderfully unique.  No American is free until every American is free just to be.  

The United States of America is not the leader of the free world until this nation can show others how to walk in three simple truths.  Every person has inherent value.  Any life is worth protecting.  All we need is love.   

We Americans can start "small" by influencing our families, our co-workers, and our communities until multiplying acts of love change the world.


Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

~Margaret Mead

Love: A Treasure and Good Inheritance

Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.  (Matthew 6: 19-20 NLT)


No matter what one believes about what happens after death everyone acknowledges that there is not one possession any person can take with her or him.  All power or influence acquired while wheeling and dealing dies along with our bodies.  There will be no more looking for the next pleasurable thing to do.  Life is an empty thing if this is all we store up during our time on the earth.  You do not leave behind a good inheritance if only your family, friends, and others like you benefit from the wealth (money, influence, safe spaces) you have amassed.    

Love is the greatest treasure to be found in heaven and on earth.  It is an unstoppable force, flowing freely out of the heart and washing over ANYONE in its beautiful wake.  It cannot be destroyed by hate or cruelty.  Love feeds upon itself and grows stronger in the face of opposition.  It is timeless and its fruits do not die, even if the selfless giver has turned to dust a long time ago.  This is the type of power every patriotic American should want to store up and leave for the generations to come.

Every American must decide what is to be treasured.  Life, liberty, and justice for all versus survival of the fittest, the wealthiest, the most influential, the majority...  You get my point.  

Pleasant Words are Honey

A wise person’s thoughts control his words,

    and his speech promotes instruction.

Pleasant words are honey from a honeycomb—

    sweet to the soul and healing for the body

                                                            (Proverbs 16:23-24  ISV)

 

What does it mean to be American?  I am asking this question fully aware that this is a nation filled with a multitude of diverse individuals.  This question is just a means to an end.  Even a diverse people should be able to find a way to agree upon how we want to be viewed.  Will we be seen as raucous, unrepentant, and biased?  Or will we reflect the glory of the Lord? 

 

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

                                                                (1 Corinthians 13:3-7  MSG)

America must be a place where the wise reign and spread health to every citizen.

All We Need is Love

4 Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  8 Love never fails...  (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 NIV) 

Michael Jackson said in his song "I'm starting with the man in the mirror" and "I'm asking him to change his ways."  The challenge of every American citizen is to walk in the love so that all of our children can inherit a healed land.  We will not fail to see America the Beautiful if we first commit to changing ourselves only to expand our sphere of influence until the entire nation is transformed by love.  This legacy is preferable to the culture of pain and hopelessness, mixed with lots of anger-fueled aggression, in which we live now.