We just got to spend this last weekend with my brother, Kevin in Washington DC. He is living here and going to law school. It was so fun to see where he lives as well as his school and exchange stories of post graduate school woes. I am so thankful that God got me through medical school, but I would definitely never want to go back there again. I feel his pain with classes starting again tomorrow.
Between his summer internship and the school year starting he gave us his only weekend off to play tour guide. I don't know if he will ever forgive me for making him walk all over DC to see the different sites. We were all sort of limping the next day.
As we went from site to site and relived the roots of our history here I could not help but feel a sense of pride and also a sense of sadness. This One Nation Under God has come so far and done so much and yet, at the moment, seems so confused. Rereading the words of our forefathers and the language they used there seemed to be much less confusion then than there is now. It was very clear in their own minds why they were working to overthrow their current government, why they put their lives and the lives of their families in the balance. They knew exactly what they were fighting for and the promises they were making to each other and to this new nation. They were on the verge of something great though the odds were sorely stacked against them. It was sheer determination, will, faith and I believe Divine Providence that brought them through it. I still cannot believe that a few trained men and a bunch of rebel rousers were able to take on the world's superpower at that time and overcome them. There were some very dark days during those 8 years of the revolution, but in the end we were not defeated. This nation was born on a miracle.
The last line of the Declaration of Independence says this-
"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our Sacred Honor."
No doubt! They knew what they stood for. They knew that it was divine providence that was going to hold them together and they knew what they had to promise to each other to make this work. "our lives, our fortunes and our Sacred Honor," --that was a united group. Rough roads were ahead and they knew that on no uncertain terms. Shouldn't this serve as a model for us as Christians? Isn't this the code by which the disciples lived? As Christians the Bible promises that rough roads are ahead. Doesn't that mean that our dedication to each other with a reliance on God should be even more at the forefront of our existence? These are some of the things that have been swirling around in my head over the last few days at our nation's capitol. Our founding fathers were some incredible men and I truly believe that God blessed them for their faithfulness. I just wonder if we could learn a thing or two by looking back at our starting point to see where our success really came from.
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