Family U.S.A.
I love celebrating our historic, hard-fought independence and the establishment of our beloved United States of America on the 4th of July of each year. I hope you do as well, my friends.
To me, all the parades, cook-outs, and fireworks as a nation help us feel a bit more like a family – Family U.S.A. – whatever our color, ethnicity, religion, political party, age, gender, class, bank account, education, and other diverse expressions. Even if it feels like just for a day, right? Sigh. Wouldn’t it be nice if that could last? In fact, may I just share a few thoughts on that?
Nothing’s perfect. Let’s just say it up front, our country is not perfect, never was perfect, and will never be perfect. The same is true for any country on the planet. And anyone can piece together a video montage of heartbreaking examples of our troubles with a musical background of America, the Beautiful, to make a seemingly clever and ironic statement of our “hypocrisy” in expressing any type of patriotic appreciation. But that is not any more insightful or impressive than doing a video montage of your family struggles with John Denver singing: “Hey it’s good, to be back home again.” ALL of life is a concurrent composite of good and bad, beautiful and ugly, praise-worthy and shameful, and there are far more contrasting comparisons. So, it is not hypocrisy at all to express our appreciation and gratefulness in celebrating all the good in our country, along with our humble prayers and hopefulness regarding the bad. In fact, it is healthy. It helps move us forward, however slowly, on all the roads to healing and reconciliation.
Family feuds. It is not uncommon at all for feuds to erupt in our families, but they don’t have to carry on for generations like the Hatfields and McCoys. Healthy families learn how to seek counsel, humble themselves, and forgive each other when a feud starts to rear its ugly head. Dysfunctional families do not. We’ve seen a lot of dysfunctionalities of late in family U.S.A., haven’t we? But what would it look like to replace diatribes with dialogues? Complaints with conversations? Accusations with affirmations? Protests with partnering? Fighting with forgiving? And racism with reconciliation? Of course, that’s not easy, nor does it come naturally for us, which is why we need . . .
Supernatural Prayer. Sometimes we can fall into the trap of just “saying prayers,” kind of like reading a poem. Oh, it might help us feel good for a bit, but the reality is, when we really have those times when our hearts are crying out in a genuine conversation with God, we are actually engaged in a supernatural activity! And guess what? It engenders a supernatural response in God’s way, and in God’s time. In the meantime, He touches our hearts, changes our attitudes, and empowers us to be a part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. Why not cultivate the art, joy, and reflex of praying with someone when struggles, confusion, and wounds erupt? God would love to change and heal the hearts of people like you, your family, and even family U.S.A. And He’s just a prayer away.
Humbly praying with you,
Pastor Mark
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