Happy 4th!

Another Fourth of July has come and gone. It was a good one, camping with the family, swimming, canoeing and shooting clays. It's one of my favorite holidays, observing what God has done for us.

But now it's time to move forward. To work hard. To chase after the good life, not just for us, but for everyone. 

The good life has more to do with the state of the heart than money and wealth.

Unfortunately this world will never be heaven. Even though we are all born with the knowledge of right and wrong, we are all born putting ourselves first. Yet there is a part of us that wants to do right and what is right for others. 

But there always seems to be this conflict in our hearts and it will be there as long as we are on this earth. The conflict is in everyone's hearts. It always puts “me” first. Our freedom isn't God-given when it snuffs out the God-given freedom of someone else.

The Declaration of Independence was a good thing and something that I am thankful for. 

It was written in a time where outside forces and governments used the local population i.e., Indians and frontiersmen, to fight their battles to try to gain ownership of the land and so there was a constant battle going on.

The Iroquois Nation and several other tribes, along with the colonists, fought for the English. The French traders and most other tribes fought for the French. 

The cost from those who lived here for the gain of those who didn't, was immense. Not only in the short term but in the longer term in creating prejudices against each other. The King wasn't doing much for the people of America. Thus the declaration.

Here's a part of it.

“WHEN in the Course of human events, it be-

comes necessary for one people to dissolve the

political bands which have connected them with

another, and to assume among the powers of the

earth, the separate and equal station to which

the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle

them, a decent respect to the opinions of man-

kind requires that they should declare the

causes which impel them to the separation.”.......

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that

all men are created equal, that they are en-

dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable

Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and

the pursuit of Happiness.”

And so we celebrate and we are thankful for the country in which we live and that we have this anchor to guide us by.

But what about the Indians?

Were they meant to have a part in this too?

Believe it or not,

Thomas Jefferson later wrote in a letter, “Our system is to live in perpetual peace with the Indians, to cultivate an affectionate attachment for them by everything just and liberal that we can do for them within the bounds of reason and by giving them effectual protection against the wrongs from our own people.”

But his heart wasn't perfect either. His next lines were something along the lines that took advantage of the Indian saying that, giving good things to the Indian and allowing them to go into debt for those good things would force them to trade their lands and give up their forests for more. Not the most neighbourly thing to say.

Back to the Declaration of Independence. 

I'll be one of the first to stand up and say that it was and is a good and even a great anchor point for any country. I'll also agree that we didn't get it all right and that we still don't. But if we want to make sure that the heart of the Nation is right, and that we are on the right path, it needs to start with us.

Maybe a little less of watching the news and a little more of loving your neighbor.

Happy 4th!