Living up to Our Founding Documents

This weekend marks the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.  That’s quite a milestone. It was between my junior and senior years in high school, 1976, that we celebrated the Bicentennial of our great country. Ironically, that is the case for my oldest granddaughter during this observance.

            It’s interesting. The fact that I spoke of our great country has become a point of contention and controversy.  There are those who point to the many flaws of our land, and indeed we are far from a perfect people.  But I do believe that the United States of America is indeed the greatest nation on earth.

            Perhaps my greatest reason for thinking this way is that our founding documents lay out a beautiful plan for living as free people. It is true that we have not always lived up to those documents. But when we do, they offer us an ideal to which we should aspire. No, we have not always lived up to these ideals. But there are people from all over the world who would love to be a part of this country.

            I think of Christianity in much the same way as I do our citizenship in the USA.  We, too, have our founding documents, the 66 books that make up the Bible. If we truly lived up to the ideals that are espoused in God’s Word, what a difference we could make in this world. But the truth is that not one Christian person has ever fully lived up to the teachings of the Bible. We are all sinners who fall short of perfection.

            Still, God loves us and works in our lives, and for that we are grateful. He forgives us and helps us to grow to become more like Jesus every day. I am so glad for the Bible and what it teaches. I want to follow its teachings more each day. And I am also glad for the Constitution and Bill of Rights. I pray that we seek to live out the ideals expressed in those pages as well.

            Happy Birthday, America. And may God truly bless us as we celebrate these last 250 years as a nation.