No Tanks Will Roll Today
Monday, November 3, 2008 at 11:59PM We keep hearing how bitterly divided our country is. Pundits punt the idea, talking heads ramble on. Writers spew out the word as if the words themselves are fact. Definitely, we disagree and we can be sometimes very extremely nastily, disagreeable in how we do so.
Nevertheless, we are not divided.
Please let me share what I think divided is:
When someone beats you up for voting… that is divided
When tanks roll and men arm themselves because your guy didn’t win or to ensure your guy does… that is divided
When your next door neighbor doesn’t invite you to his Christmas party because of the sign in your yard during October and November that is you neighbor being a bore. When he turns you into the secret police because of the political/religious opinion you whisper in secret… that is divided.
We Americans are fortunate to be able to use language loosely. We are spoiled in our freedom and that is a blessing given to us for a specific time and for unique purpose. We have fought side by side and against each other in this great experiment of democracy that is the United States.
We get some things wrong; we get a lot of thing right.
Today, not matter who wins the election no tanks will roll, no armed men will surround Washington, no one will go to jail for making a political joke….
In the history of the world ….we are unique ….
My pray (voting is but for a second, pray changes eternity) for the next four years no matter who wins is to the One who holds our leader’s heart in His hand. This pray echoes the words of one who also shared a dream of a unique country, in a unique time in world history…
I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for brethren who have served in the field; and finally that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.
George Washington June 14, 1783
Lord Jesus, thank You and in Your name….amen.