God Shed His Grace on Thee

 This past Independence Day was typical for me......I worked!  It takes some mental preparation to work several days in a row, waking up by 4:30am in the morning, and anticipating the crazy fireworks that will fill the sky above my house and fill my ears with booming sound!  Then I have to wake up....again at 4:30am the next day to go to work.  "Well, at least it's not as bad as 3 and 4 years ago when the fireworks did not stop till 3am", I think, gratefully!  People must have called the city complaining about the ridiculous over-kill of fireworks in our area. 

So this past July 4th I enjoyed some fireworks......that's right........if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!  I do that some years!  I figure, if I can't sleep I might as well try to enjoy it instead of lay irritated in my bed.  I really don't enjoy fireworks so much.  I feel like I've seen many fireworks shows and they are all very similar.  This year as I watched I thought very deeply about why we set off those fireworks and why we celebrate.  Honestly, for the past 5 or so years I have actually been a little disappointed and depressed on the Independence Day of my country.  I find most celebrations of this holiday to be very shallow, very hollow, very superficial! It's rare to meet someone who knows the Constitution well, or has even read it. I ask myself.......what do we have to celebrate?  I know we still possess much freedom and I know we are very blessed.......I still see God here!  On the other hand I see the loss of freedom and it's continuance.  I think about my childhood and I believe we had much more freedom back then than now.  My grandparents experienced more freedom than I have ever known, in some ways...........their grandparents more than they in many ways (minus the dark times of racism, segregation, and sexism, in some ways we have become more free over time......technology has also offered some freedoms and enhanced others........I do recognize these things, in case you are wondering)......and so on......and on, back to our founders that fought for what they believed to be the rights of all humans, the rights that had their origin only from a higher power, God, natural rights, and found them to be in-al-ien-able.  

A long time ago when I served in various teaching positions in my church there was a stretch of time

of about 3 years where every lesson or talk I was given to teach was about the agency of God's children.  After about 3 lessons I thought...... hmm, there's a pattern here.......God really wants to teach me about agency.......but why???   I didn't always know the answer other than it was a good topic to learn about and discuss.  The pattern continued beyond 3 lessons.  It was starting to feel like Groundhog Day or deja vu every time it came up! I think I know now why He wanted me to learn about it. At that time and even now God wants me, personally to know these things and my soul is full of joy as I continue to learn.  God wants all of His children to know about agency and experience freedom.  We are agents unto ourselves and believe it or not, we are capable of self governance and knowing right from wrong.  We can indeed have liberty which is freedom with responsibility.......responsibility to do the right things.  If you are reading this maybe it's a Godwink to you or an inspiration for you to learn more and speak truth.

I love the truth!  I love researching!  I love history!  The history inspires people to be great and to do great things!!  In our day where right and wrong seem blurry, and the "gray" space widens with every issue and hard decision.  The hedonistic humans that we are, mine for gray space and a way out......an easy way out!  I have news for you......there is no easy way out.......there is no easy way to stand for your beliefs.........doing the right thing is not easy and probably never will be.  

So many humans get easily offended by certain terms, words, phrases.  When I confronted the CEO of my company about vaxxxxx mandates he had a problem with some of the things I said in my emails, haha!  He gave me some good advice and I took it, but at the same time I said "I don't regret what I said or how I said it and I would say it again!"  When your house is burning down or everything in your life is falling apart, what do you do?   What do you say?  Your first priority probably isn't to be "nice"  and "sugar coat".  It's probably more like this:

"GET THE $#@!* OUT OF THE HOUSE!  WE ARE LOSING EVERYTHING %$#@*&%!! GET THE FIRE DEPARTMENT, 911!  911!  HELP!!  SOMEONE MIGHT BE DYING!  HELP!!"

You may or may not be prepared for this and in the aftermath you are probably thinking....."why me? What am I going to do?" 

The house is on fire people!  Our freedom is being burned at the stake as we constantly hear freedom being put on trial.......the why's, the how's, the "is freedom really necessary" arguments.  The questions are always ongoing and if you like freedom you are demonized and you are selfish...........How dare you?

Keep in mind these words and ponder them........

"You have no enemies, you say? Alas, my friend, the boast is poor. He who has mingled in the fray of duty that the brave endure, must have made foes. If you have none, small is the work that you have done. You’ve hit no traitor on the hip. You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip. You’ve never turned the wrong to right. You’ve been a coward in the fight."-Charles Mackay

A few years ago I read "What to The Slave is The Fourth of July?" By Frederick Douglass. I highly recommend you read it if you haven't already! For isn't that what freedom is to all of us? I ask myself every year "What does Freedom mean to me?" I am deeply grateful to live where I do in America. I possess deep gratitude for the freedoms I do enjoy. It is concerning to live in a time when those freedoms are not valued or respected as they should be. These I hold dear are not protected, they are not learned by the younger populace. I learned mostly by searching and listening to the older generations. My parents taught me some and my teachers taught me some, but mostly I've had to listen, read, and search. As the poem above suggests we do not want foes, we do not want to fight.......we do not want enemies. We hold up on pedestals those who fought before us, we dangle "freedom" at the forefront of our parade, we honor heroes, we expect heroes to come to our aid...........the problem is no one wants to really be the hero in this story.  I find it interesting that when someone does something to stand for freedom we distance ourselves from them and label them crazy.   I see no George Washington types. I think, people think they see heroes in government, but really they are wolves in sheep's clothing! The wolves want nothing more than to devour us in taxes even unto our death, enslave us, and gain more and more power! They love the idea that they can fool us and put us in some kind of twisted Truman show.....they love it when we continue to vote for them.........if that's legitimate! "ENOUGH" does not exist in their vocabulary! These are no heroes, they are not representative of founding heroes that actually gave up much in the name of freedom! They will give up nothing......they don't know the meaning of such a concept! Most of our populace are cowards on some level.  Most people don't want to ruffle feathers. Most of us want to live without any trouble, cruising under the radar.  I'll be the first to admit to this!  For if there were many real heroes we would not wake to this awful situation!!! How did we get here?  Little by little is how.  We can always put up with a little evil, or a little loss of freedom.  We live in a world where evil is good and good is evil and no one really stands for anything, but rather we raise ourselves onto individual pedestals, praising ourselves and only standing for that which benefits our own interests! If we stood for truth and shared in the efforts of knowing freedom and living freedom, that in turn would benefit all.

If a man or woman has enemies that means they are doing something right I would imagine! Having enemies is not intentional for most of us, but it is merely a result of taking a stand on something that really matters!  So what is to be done??? Seek truth.....stand where you can. Someone cannot do everything, but everyone can do something! All you have to do to make enemies is speak truth! Do not let wolves herd you as sheep, tag you, brand you, use you, suck the very life from you. Maybe you think I'm being a little dramatic, but this evil has existed from the very beginning of time. Freedom is always something to be desired even to bloodshed and there has always been wolves standing by ready to take it. Look anywhere in history, look anywhere in the world today. The wolves are easy for me to see. If you are not seeing them maybe it's time to look a little harder. Look within yourself. ........ask yourself, was this country more free 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 50 years ago? In what ways was it more free? What is freedom? What does it mean to me? What am I willing to do for it?

Right now I think the best thing I can do is to learn truth, seek more truth and spread truth! I am not advocating for making enemies willfully, or for fighting wars. Although this may be the outcome for standing for truth and right! I'm talking about something more like this:

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" -Isaiah 52:7

DECLARE PEACE, DECLARE TRUTH! The outcome will result in freedom! In knowing truth we find out who we really are and we become prepared to defend that, defend freedom, defend ourselves, our families, God's truth, and create a pathway for the equal freedom of all humanity to be extended. It will be extended through God and truth! Look to God to find yourself, find your courage, dust off your moral compass, get your bearings and find your sense of right and wrong.......and for heaven's sake (not God's, He does not need our sake, He is the one who gives freedom, its our job to defend it!).......for humanities sake......and for your sake, stand for truth!!!

I guess you could say I've been red-pilled to a degree and it seems that there is little good left in the world and that all truth is buried and hidden away. I have always attempted to live my life by this rule: wherever you go, whatever you do take the good.....leave the bad. Wherever you go and whatever you do spread the good and dump the bad. I am not always good at living by this, but I can testify that when I do, it has never steered me wrong; it has always served me well, and I have no regrets. I don't write this because I'm an expert in standing for freedom, but I have a desire to do something! I declare with more courage and conviction that which I believe, I listen and seek out the "watchmen on the towers". I seek the signs by which God has shed His grace on me. I continue mining nuggets of truth and sharing. I seek to be a "watchman".

May God shed His grace on those who bring tidings of great joy and publish peace from upon the mountains tops!