Crackling Foundation

Last night I found myself sitting in the middle of the road staring at the sky. It’s true. Only on the 4^th of July, or around that time, does everything shut down enough, including the road services, to allow hundreds of children, teenagers, adults, and even elderly folks in their old granny nightgowns (which I say in a completely endearing old granny nightgown tone) to fill up every empty space on the sidewalks, the medians, the parking lots—wherever. And why shouldn’t they? It’s the 4^th of July. It’s a big deal. It’s the celebration of the day our country was founded under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I watched the fireworks that night. Big shebangs, a big deal every year, and we all flock to various places during this time to watch fireworks once, twice, maybe three or more times. I personally like the white ones best. I am anything but a chemistry lover, but fireworks are the one thing that actually make me stop and think about chemical reactions. I don’t know squat about the chemical reactions in fireworks, but I know that’s what it is, and that’s cool. What a world. What an intricate world we live in, and what an amazing God we serve, who has fashioned—even in the midst of the cars and man-made city landscapes—the grass, the trees, the chatting people, the ladies in their granny nightgowns J, the sky that serves as a backdrop for this awesome fireworks display, and the chemicals and atoms that make up the fireworks. Then he gave us the mental capability to discover for ourselves how those atoms and chemicals can work together to create bursts of light against the dark sky. With that, I have to add in, as I am an English teacher and not a science teacher, that the bursts of light on that night skyline is in itself an awesome reminder to me of how Christ stands out in the midst of the darkness, how even when darkness and evil is so prevalent and seems to reign on this earth, it is Christ who inevitably shines….and uses His children to do so. Make yourself available. Pray for willingness. What an amazing spiritual reaction Christ can ignite in our hearts when we’re willing.

BUT back to the point. I’m not even sure I have one right now. Let me rephrase that—I do have a point, but I do not yet know how it’s coming together; I’m just writing, because there are a million and five thoughts fighting for attention in my mind. Allow me jet back to that night on the median watching the fireworks in the sky.

I sat there and watched the fireworks. In spite of the display, around me people were talking nonstop. I was mostly just watching the lights and commenting to Brandon and his buddies here and there when all of this hit me. Those fireworks stand for our nation, founded under God—a nation and a freedom for which our forefathers fought with their lives. I let that just sink in because I take it for granted so often. Freedom. The fireworks transported me back to a time when they had to fight for our freedom initially just so we could become the United…the UNITED States of America. How often do we watch fireworks and forget that? How often do we just watch just for the sake of looking at the pretty chemical reactions?

I closed my eyes. All I heard were gunshots in the sky. All I thought of was one of the senior boys from my class this past semester who is heading off to the marines to fight—gunshots —for our…for my…freedom. We are so far removed. How often do we forget that we are still daily fighting for our freedom? This boy—he’s 18, just graduated from high school, and all he wants to do is fight for these freedoms we so often take for granted. How I cringe to think that I have taken this for granted in the past when I think of sending off this 18 year old guy…the age of my brother…not that much younger than me…to possibly fight for his life for the sake of this country that was founded under God, yet a country that would like to become one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. One nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Well, I have news for you, folks. A nation not built on God is built on Satan, because it’s one or the other, and a house built on the sand won’t stand. When we strip the Rock from our foundation, we won’t stand against the terrorists, against our enemies, against the disputes that happen within our nation and walls, and we will fall, no matter how hard we fight. When we strip God from our foundation, just as in our own lives, we have no hope at all, and I will not send see my 18 year old student with so much left to live go out to fight for no reason, which is exactly what he’s doing if he’s fighting for a freedom for a country that was founded on God who no longer will look to God and thus will fall anyway in spite of all his willingness to serve and sacrificial hard work. It makes me sick to think of it.

Then the news. I confess I don’t keep up with current events like I should. I leave that to my big brother, but man alive, all this Supreme Court ruling stuff on the Ten Commandments and when it can and can’t be posted is ludicrous. It’s bunk. Anything goes in this society. We tolerate killing babies, we tolerate homosexuality running rampant, we tolerate lying and cheating and schmoozing our neighbors all for our own gratification. We tolerate Satanism and idol worship and scientology…we tolerate everything except Christianity. We tolerate everything except the Truth. The Truth—oh, now that’s violating free speech. That’s pushing our beliefs on someone else. A person can’t do that. That’s against the constitution….a constitution that was founded by men who recognized the sovereignty of God. Don’t tell me that the men who wrote that constitution would say we can’t talk about Christ, can’t share Christ, can’t post the Ten Commandments on our walls, can’t have license plates that say Jon316 on them, can’t pray in schools. Those are, I should think, some of the very freedoms for which they fought….among others, obviously. It makes me angry. It makes me sick. It makes me feel discouraged. It motivates me to seek to know God even more fully, as I don’t possibly see how this country can stand much longer under these circumstances, without Christ as the foundation, without being built on the Rock. I want to make sure I’m ready, because when this country goes down, I want to look up. I want to go up.

I watched those fireworks and I heard the bangs—the gunshots—and as I saw Christ against the darkness and, through the blasts, the wonder of God and the way he created our minds, and as I saw brilliance in the sky and thought of how it stands for a country I so dearly love and the freedom we have to praise God right here and now even as it seems to be slipping away from us, and as I hear the bang of the chemicals exploding and thought of the men—boys who are pushed into manhood so quickly in some cases—who go to war of all kinds so that we can sit back on our backs and watch in relaxation the explosions in the sky, and as both love and fear for the future of this land rose in my heart, I wondered how it is that so often I look at a fireworks display and only see the lights. Only feel the fun of the moment. How could I forget the magnitude of the Fourth of July? I remembered why this is my favorite holiday—because of all the holidays, this holiday pulls me into it and fuels my passion not only to get out there and share the gospel no matter what the Supreme Court says or how the people around me jibe or stare, but to pray pray pray for a country that so desperately needs to put God back in the center. This holiday gives me both the warm fuzzies and thankful heart and reminds me of the magnitude and awesomeness of a great God, but it pricks me where it counts to seek ways beyond what I am doing (which isn’t much) to fight—even if not on the front lines like my former student (God go with him; please pray for him and our troops if you haven’t been. I can’t imagine fighting on the front lines for a country who may or may not even support my efforts)—but to fight for a return to God in our nation. Maybe it’s to no avail, honestly. Maybe this is all part of the plan as prophecy is fulfilled and we grow closer and closer to the end of this world, but I know it is not part of the plan that I sit on my butt and stop talking about Christ, so I shall continue to fight…or begin to fight if I haven’t been as much as I should in some way or another…for a return to God, for a maintenance of not only political freedom, but our religious freedom so that we can continue to share Christ….because in Christ, we are made free. Only in Christ can we ever truly be free.

Blessed 4^th of July

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” II Chronicles 7:14