On Sunny Lane: Blessings to Share

Last Sunday the pastor at the church where Sweetheart and I attend asked us during the service, as he usually does, if anybody had any prayer requests or blessings that they would like to share. 

There were the usual requests for healing for themselves or loved ones and the usual pleas for world peace. There is one man, however, who, every chance he gets, expresses his thankfulness to God that he can get up each morning, get a shower, eat breakfast and be free to do whatever he wants. (He is retired. That helps.)

It seems that he never gets tired of being thankful for such mundane blessings. But, he recognizes that, in some countries, such mundane blessings are out of reach. Maybe, we lose sight of the blessings we have in this great country of ours. Maybe, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded—especially on the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation.

The people who wrote our Constitution and established our form of government were visionaries. They came up with guidelines for their own moment in history, while trying to provide for changes that could happen in the future.

But, there were technological changes that they could not foresee and laws would need to be made to protect and regulate them. There would be societal changes that would affect the way people work, play, live, do business and worship God. Even such a basic premise as what determines male and female would come into question.  How could they have predicted that, or even comprehended it?

However, in some countries, I understand that citizens are mandated to live in a certain place; worship God in a proscribed way; do the work that is required of them. They are persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and executed because of their race, religion, ethnicity or beliefs. They are not guaranteed the rights that we exercise every day.

Years ago, I watched an episode of “Star Trek” on television. One race of people was being subjugated by another. One of the oppressors who was overseeing the people’s imprisonment, told his comrade that, to the imprisoned, “freedom” was a worship word. In some countries, perhaps it is even today.

However, freedom does mean license. It would behoove a person to use common sense...to talk things over and listen to another person’s viewpoint rather than to insist that they believe as you do. What sense does it make to put yourself in harm’s way when protesting and then complain when you are harmed?

And, maybe, it would be a good idea to refresh your memory about what went into making our country so great—warts and all. Our achievements and way of life still surpass those of any other nation. Otherwise, why would people from other countries be risking their lives and livelihoods to come here?

We can never appreciate or celebrate that enough.

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Dorothy is the author of two books—“Miles and Miracles” and “Getting It All Together “. You can purchase a book or send a comment by emailing her at dorothybutzknight@gmail.com