As America celebrates this Memorial Day, let us remember the many blessings of liberty, and that we must continue the fight to preserve them. While the sacrifice made by so many before us enables us to enjoy this weekend, the fight for freedom goes on. The responsibility to defend human liberty falls to each of us.
Today, America is threatened by the specter of spiraling deficits and out-of-control spending, threats from Jihadists around the world, and the decay of our consensus values here at home. At this moment in our history, every generation of Americans is called to affirm our Founding vision of building a nation of justice and opportunity. I’m reminded of Nehemiah’s vision for Jerusalem, and how God used an ordinary man to miraculously rebuild the sacked city. When Nehemiah became the Governor of Judea, he did not call upon the government, or his squadrons of soldiers, to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. Instead, he called on each citizen to “rise up and rebuild.”
In that same spirit, each American has the opportunity to be the change we want to see in our Country. Freedom is the work of every single citizen. Spending cannot be cut, and government cannot be shrunk, without our willingness to courageously embrace the uncertainty of freedom. Freedom, though an inestimable blessing, is not easy to maintain; it requires the best of the American Spirit. We must rise to the occasion to provide for our own families, care for our own neighbors and provide for our own future, instead of groveling for government to grant us what we need. I often think of President Gerald Ford’s solemn warning in 1974 that “a government big enough to give you everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.”
Freedom is not to the weak or the faint of heart. Instead, is to the valiant, the brave and the determined. Let us remember the words of II Timothy 1:7: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” America’s future is dependent on the principles of her past: confident courage, moral determination and the love of God and family. It is up to the American People to carry forth the tradition of being “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
This Memorial Day Weekend, I’d ask that we all begin the work of rebuilding America, one citizen, one home, at a time.
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