Redeeming the Declaration of Independence

(Todays' Music: Falling by Radial Angel)

So I went and did it, didn't I? I poo-pooed all over the (unfortunately) most sacred text in the United States, the Declaration of Independence. I spat on the flag. I flipped the bird to all those soldiers and public servants for the last 240 years who have fought and died to give me the freedom I use to belittle them.

*sigh* It looks that way, doesn't it?

But let's move to Part 2 of the point. K?

I talked over what I posted yesterday with my brilliant wife last night. And she challenged me to come up with a better way to set up a country. She reminded me of what the founding fathers were trying to do and the message they were sending to those bloody Brits when they wrote the Declaration. And when we got done talking, I came to understand how it works. It started to dawn on me how this country has become such a great place to live.

It wasn't about them.

Who "them"? The founding fathers "them". It was about Josiah Smith the tobacco farmer. It was about Miles Jones the cobbler. Later it was about Paddy O'Reilly the plantation worker. And about Stan Klosky the meat-packing worker. Made up names, of course, but you get the point. The "rights" identified by the Declaration of Independence are guides to the rights of others.

The Declaration of Independence breaks down when Bob Johnson holds them up and says, "These are my rights!" Those rights (gifts), like our lives of faith in the Father through Christ Jesus, aren't about us as individuals. To point to them and say "My rights!" is to abuse them. They are examples of the way Jesus treated others. And so, they are examples of how each of us should think about everybody except ourselves. Let me expand.

Life. The greatest gift given to us by the Lord. Certainly Jesus was all about life. The beauty of the lives of our children. Eternal life in heaven. Jesus even identified Himself as the Life. But when it was all on the line, it wasn't about His life. It was about ours. He could have saved His life and been no less the Messiah for it, except His Father asked for more. Jesus treated us all as if we had the right to live, as long as we were willing to recognize our place and our service to the Father.

Liberty. Jesus sure seemed like a free spirit, didn't he? All of my images of Jesus were of a man who wouldn't have been particularly out of place at Woodstock. But the irony of it all is that His freedom, His liberty came because of a slavery so profound that we can't even comprehend it. He was a complete willing slave to the Will of the Father. And in doing so, he used his freedom to guarantee the freedom from sin we all now have. Nothing binds us, tortures us, and controls us like sin. But in slavery to Christ, we have freedom. Now use that to free others. It's not about my freedom. God wants my life to be about your freedom, because I love Him and I love you. That's what the founding fathers did. They made personal sacrifices, their lives when necessary, to free those around them that they loved. That's what all of those proud, heroic soldiers and public servants have done for the last 240 years - sacrificed for the freedom of others. And that's what it's really about. That's why freedom isn't free. That is the story of the United States. That is Christ.

Pursuit of Happiness? Hmmm...I may have to mess with this one a little. The greatest lie I have ever heard told amongst Christians is this: God's greatest desire is for you to be happy.

Nope.

God's greatest desire is for you to be holy. Does God, then, rejoice in your suffering? No, but you should. In order for you to bear fruit, you need to be weeded and pruned on occasion. In order for you to become like Jesus, for you to become like the Father, you need to grow. And in case you never noticed, you never grow with happiness. You never gain with pleasure. Growth comes only through struggle. Maturation requires pain. And satisfaction comes only with the risk of devastation.

Ask any parent.

If you are aligned with God and His Will, then His Will becomes your will. Then, in holiness, you will find the only true happiness instead of this perfumed fecal matter the world sells you as happiness. So, I suppose working toward others' pursuit of happiness (and your own) is valid, as long as it's true happiness.

"This is my commandment: Love one another as I have loved you."
There it is. This is how Jesus has loved us. By working toward our life, our liberty, and our pursuit of eternal happiness - all at the cost of His own. So this is how we live now, by working toward these goals for others, at the cost of our own. This is Christian America. This is the real United States.