Faith and Country

Some of the best four or five hours I’ve spent – nay invested - in a long time, has taken place over the last several days as I’ve read the book If You Can Keep It, by Eric Metaxas. It’s not a new book, it was published about five years ago, but I think the timing of my reading it is about as perfect as it could have been. Given all of the disunity, division and downright dread that fills the news these days – much of it about and concerning this great nation of ours – it was a good time for me to read some historical and objective truths about our country’s founding. It was also quite interesting to read in light of my most recent post concerning Spiritual Provenance. In many ways, this book dives deep into the spiritual provenance of our nation.

The purpose here is not to present a “book report” in any sense. Rather, I want to encourage you all – as strongly as I can – to get your hands on a copy and read it for yourselves. If you are roughly my age (born during the early stages of the Vietnam War), some of this will be new to you in the sense that it was never taught in school. If you are a generation younger, I dare say most of what’s included will be new information. I have spoken to those from the generation before me, and the stories depicted are less foreign. Interesting what happens over time. (And as you will read, this is part of the problem.)

Since this is a blog about faith, and being obedient to the voice of God, I want to just share a couple of things where this concept that we’ve come to speak about here as living unfiltered for God, came into play some 250 years ago.

The founders truly believed that they had been entrusted with a once in a lifetime – and first in history – opportunity to create a government that was to be, “of the people and for the people.” This they believed to be a gift and opportunity, from God Himself. And they believed Jesus’s words when he said, “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required.” (Luke 12: 48 NKJV) They were well aware of the gravity of getting it right. Or, for that matter, of getting it wrong.

As part of the “stewardship” of this great experiment, they knew that ultimately, it was less about us and more about others. (In fact, Metaxas goes into great detail about how part of the bedrock foundation of our nation rests on the Christian principle of “loving your neighbor as yourself” (see Matthew 22:39)) The reference from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount concerning the “city on a hill” (Matthew 5:14) is one that has been conjured up often in referring to the standing of our country in the world. The way the founders understood this though, was that we were not given the light just to shine for ourselves, but rather, to be a light to the world and share our blessings with others all over the globe.

One final example is how the founders turned to God in prayer for guidance and assistance throughout, from deciding what to do about fighting Great Britain for their independence in the first place, right through and beyond crafting the Constitution. A speech of Benjamin Franklin (who was the oldest, and ironically, one of the least “religious”) is included where he implored his fellow Constitutional Conventionalists to go back to seeking God’s wisdom, (asking, “the Father of lights to illuminate our understanding”) and blessings over their deliberations by beginning each session with prayer. As we who are believers would expect, upon the commencement of this practice, everything started falling into place and even the most difficult challenges were able to be worked out.

There is so much here to digest for both the historian and the person of faith. I have barely scratched the surface. I do wish I have at least piqued your interest enough to go and read it for yourself. You will learn much. Your faith will be strengthened. And you will be better equipped to understand and even in engage in some of the debates raging about the future of our country.

May God continue to bless these United States of America.