Think about the meaning of the flag

By now the echos of the reports from fireworks have quietened down and the smell of exploded gunpowder and the trails of smoke have died down.

The 4th of July has come and gone and now we continue on with our year. If you think back to your history classes in high school, what was our independence supposed to accomplish?

As I was driving around observing the various ways communities celebrated our independence, I saw avenues of flags or red, white, and blue. I saw families going to watch firework displays and have cookouts.

Those are great ways to celebrate and express patriotism. However, I would encourage you to think about the meaning of the flag.

Most of us know the meanings of the colors on the flag symbolize certain characteristics. Red stands for the blood that was shed to preserve our freedom as well as valor of those with the guts enough to protect it. Blue stands for perseverance, justice and vigilance. Lastly, white stands for purity and innocence.

Look at the ratio of these colors on the flag. We see purity and innocence sprinkled throughout the colors of justice and valor.

As a nation, we must strive to uphold those values on which we were founded. The disconnection we have as citizens of this country is that we are expecting our leadership and those who are in the highest levels of government to ensure that our constitution which states all men are created equal to champion and protect that founding principle.

Why the disconnect? As citizens of this great nation, we are responsible to uphold these principles in our everyday lives. We must champion these principles in our businesses and our schools of higher learning.

If we as a nation are founded on equality, then we must insure equity as well. Depending on someone else to ensure freedom and rights of being and American creates a desolate void in our society.

Unless that void is filled with compassion, care, and concern for our fellow man, it will be filled with the detestable fodder of favoritism, hate, racism, classism, and various other isms that divide a nation of great people who can do great things.

The book of 2 Chronicles gives a historic account of the nation of Israel and its people. They had became greatly divided.

People gave over to their own devices and prejudices and turned away from the guiding principle that united them as a nation.

As each person pursued their own agenda, the nation fell further and further into disparity.

Some were having a great time of wealth and others were destitute. Slavery of their own people by others was ignored.

The cries of the innocent were not being recognized and addressed. In actuality, it resembled what we are experiencing as a nation today.

Until, some of the people started to recognize the shift that had happened in the culture and the nation. Those people began to intercede on behalf of the nation. This verse in chapter 7 sums up the promise of God to a nation that recognizes how far it has fallen and repents.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; I will hear their prayers, forgive their sins, and heal their land.

Like it or not, our country was founded on the principles set forth in Bible. You can choose what you want to believe, that is your right as an American, but also as a creation of God.

We have the free will to accept Jesus Christ or not. That right did not come from being an American but rather that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL AND ARE ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR that is a Biblical precept stated in Genesis.

We have the choice to recognize these rights and use them to bring about equality and equity for all people. God has not turned his back on America. America has turned their back on Him. He is waiting for us as both individual and nation to call out to Him with repentance and change. The only thing that is going to bring unity to this county is the country returning to God.

One last thought, on the back of our currency we have the slogan “In God We Trust.” I would say at one time as a nation we did, but we started to trust in ourselves more.

We became more concerned with our own life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness than we did “love your neighbor.”

Since that shift to self-gratification and self-ambition; how has that worked out for us as a whole?

The moment we started to trust in someone other than God, we became victims of our own selfish desires. It led to slavery, racism, classism, poverty, and persecution.

America is a great nation, and I am honored to live in this country. It is the greatest nation on the planet.

We have freedom and liberty. Men and women have died to protect my rights as an American.

When I see a flag, I think how blessed I truly am to live here. As I perform and observe funerals of retired military or fallen military, tears come to my eyes when the bugle plays Taps.

Those men and women did not die in vain. Neither did Jesus. Jesus Christ did not die in vain either.

He died for you and for me and for us as a nation to walk in the freedoms that we have.