This week we will gather with friends and family for fun, fireworks and lots of good food. We will bake in the sun. We’ll complain about the heat. We’ll spend time in the pool. Maybe we’ll set off some high altitude explosives. I’m not sure what you’ll do to celebrate this weekend known as Independence Day, but make it a safe celebration. Here are a couple of things to ponder before you go blowing crap up and getting roasted by your backyard pool.
What is this day all about?
It’s no secret that I’ve always been a fairly patriotic kind of guy. I’ve always stood for the National Anthem, put my hand on my heart when saying the Pledge of Allegiance, respected or at least politely remained quite toward those in office regardless of how I feel about them personally. But as I grow older and realize more and more about myself and the things we have in our lives as Americans, I can’t help but stand more firm in my stance on the power and amazing gift of the freedom we have as men and women in this country.
But what exactly is freedom?
Freedom is not making everyone do what you want the way you want it done. That’s dictatorship. Freedom isn’t giving everyone the same ends, meaning the same outcomes in life. Freedom isn’t erasing the bad moments to make the us feel better. Freedom isn’t even leveling the playing field. And freedom wasn’t cheap and it shouldn’t be to us either.
Freedom is giving everyone the a place on the game board, not ensuring that everyone wins. It’s giving people resources to run the race not giving them a trophy just for showing up. Freedom is a gift wrapped in the sacrifices of countless men and women across time and space. It by far is one of the most costly free things we’ll experience. There is only one thing more costly than our freedom as Americans and that’s the love of a gracious God.
Freedom is a gift that looks like a smile on a child’s face when they are adopted by a couple who can’t have children. Freedom is the sound of fireworks in sky instead of bombs in our backyard. Freedom is best realized when everyone works to raise the ceiling instead of pointing at the basement.
In our 21st Century modern world we’ve become basement dwellers instead of ceiling lifters. It was for the sake of freedom that men and women from varying backgrounds came together to lift the ceiling of oppression and bondage. It was in the name of freedom that soldiers stood at the ready to allow us the chance to have a backyard barbecue. And it should be in the name of freedom that we as Americans come together to raise the ceiling and in so doing help to lift those crushed under the weight of economic, health and relational challenges.
Freedom doesn’t mean we all end in the same place. That’s like saying every football game has two winners. Why keep score?! Why even play?! Freedom is being able to put two teams on the field at the same time, not always equal teams but teams that battle back and forth making both better.
Back to the beginning…
In short, freedom isn’t about being able to do anything we want or even letting everyone have the same treatment. It’s about being given the chance to play, work, live. There will always be some who are more talented, gifted, popular, welcomed, rich than you are, but there will always be some who are less of these things as well. Freedom is being given the ability to operate inside the boundaries. Wisdom is knowing where the boundaries are. Compassion and love are realizing that differences are valuable and seeing worth in someone who might very well be different than you.
In short, today you can be free become someone chose not to be free in a moment of time. Today you can celebrate where you are in life but do it without belittling someone in the process. Today you can celebrate the fact that while you may not be where you want in life, you are able to live, breathe, eat, work and play with some pretty wide open boundaries.
I’m going to drop a song here at the end that shows why you have the freedoms you have. This song is special to me for many reasons, mostly because my son shared this with me and said this is one of the reasons he chose the path he chose.
Be well. Stay safe. And thank Mr. Red, White, and Blue for the things you can do today.
It’s July 4, 2016. Today is a day we’ll gather around grills and pools to celebrate our freedom and independence as a nation. We’ll have parties. We’ll fly old glory. We’ll play yard games. We will have fun with our families.