It’s officially Independence Day (or as some jokingly refer to it on social media, Treason Day by us ungrateful former British subjects).
I didn’t go see any fireworks today because 1) I’m still in recovery mode from pneumonia, 2) I’m dog sitting in Bellevue and didn’t feel like driving cross-country, and 3) it rained on and off most of the day.
I am thankful for my freedoms. You can criticize this country and its history and policies (and there’s admittedly a lot we’ve gotten way wrong over the years) but remember that one of your freedoms is the right to criticize without fear of being labeled a traitor and/or arrested by said government.
We must be doing something right for there still to be so many who want to come here (whether legally or illegally).
Yet for all that, I have to confess something. For those who profess faith in Jesus, it’s not God AND country. It’s God THEN country. We may be citizens whose pledge allegiance to a flag and a president but our ultimate allegiance is to a King and a Kingdom.
It’s helpful to keep that in mind going into yet another Presidential election. We need to be reminded yet again that our hope isn’t in the man or woman who sits in the White House. Our hope isn’t in the nine people who sit on the U. S. Supreme Court. Our hope isn’t in passing laws and statutes.
The current problems we face aren’t nearly as much political as they are spiritual, so we don’t need a political platform as much as we need a Savior.
The way of the cross still isn’t drinking the Kool Aid of one political party or the other. It isn’t more Christians in political office. The way of the cross is still this– “Whoever wants to be first must be last, and whoever wants to be the greatest must be the servant of all (Mark 9:35).
I hope you’re enjoying your extended holiday weekend. Just remember that as great as America is, it doesn’t even begin to compare to the Kingdom of God that’s already here and yet at the same time is on its way.
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