THE ONE WITH THE RED, WHITE, AND BLUE

We had a GREAT 4th of July weekend! This is the first year since I was a kid that I've been in Murfreesboro for the fireworks. I usually LOVE going downtown Nashville, but the wall-to-wall people just didn't leave much space for Mady to be Mady. So we decided to try out the "Celebration Under the Stars" at Sports*Com. We'll probably change the way we did some of it for next year, but overall it was a pretty successful experience. We had a blast hanging out with the Coomes family, Lashlee & David, and my parents and brother - quite the random group. We just collected people who were going to be there, and it was so nice!

At church on Sunday morning, we sang the usual collection of patriotic songs (though not "America the Beautiful," like Darin was hoping). New Vision always does a fantastic job of creating an environment for deep, meaningful worship. I often feel like their worship leaders prompt me to think about things from a unique perspective. Actually, I'm sure it's God's prompting, but I'm grateful for these musicians who allow God to prompt through them. Anyway, you probably wouldn't be surprised to know that we sang "God Bless America" this week. I wasn't either, but I was surprised by the things that stood out to me...

     God bless America,
     Land that I love.
     Stand beside her, and guide her
     Through the night with a light from above.
     From the mountains, to the prairies,
     To the oceans, white with foam
     God bless America, My home sweet home.

#1 - What must it have been like for this country to be so connected protestant views? I'm horrible at anything historical, so please disregard any of my ignorance when I write about things like this. But it had to be kind of nice for religion to play a bigger part in government. I'm not talking about wanting our current "church and state" to be combined (let's not even go there for now), I just often think about what it must have been like before there was much separation. What if you lived in a country where your beliefs were shared and implemented into the government daily? People of different religions experience this in other countries, right? My thoughts on this go quite a bit deeper, but I can tell I don't know how to put them into words that sound very educated, so I'll just leave it at that!

#2 - Irving Berlin's words are beautiful perfect. His prayer is for God to "stand beside" and "guide" our country "through the night with a light from above." Through the night - the darkness, the shadows, the not so-bright-spots that definitely exist in this nation. Berlin wrote these words while serving in the Army. Does it get much darker than the battlefield? (Actually, his original words were to the right, but he changed them later. Maybe he saw something that changed him?) With a light from above - for God to put his divine presence over us, a light that is brighter than any other. I pray that God truly does stand beside and guide us with his perfect knowledge through the things we can't even fathom getting through. I pray this for our nation and for my own personal life.

Just some thoughts.