Reflecting on America After 250 Years

Last week, our nation celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. As I celebrated with family and friends, I couldn’t help but think about the history and promise of this great nation.

250 years ago, the fathers of this nation, valiant men around my age, put their lives on the line for the right of self determination. Over the summer of 1776, those men debated what our country should look like while the oppressive British government sent tens of thousands of troops from across the ocean to quell the American rebellion. At the time, the British were the most powerful military in the world. Our forefathers decided that the ideal of self governance was so important that they would rather take up arms against the most powerful military in the world at the time than to live under the rule of an oppressive tyrant thousands of miles away.

To imagine that undertaking, we must realize that God undoubtedly blessed their endeavor. And I am certainly thankful that he has. We would not be the nation that we are without His divine grace.

Never has the world seen a nation so industrious or a people so generous. Be proud of our history. Be proud of our heritage as Americans.

The United States of America is the greatest country in the history of the world. Founded upon the core beliefs that our rights are endowed upon us by our Creator, that all of God’s children are created equal, and that the purpose of government is to protect our God-given rights, our nation has stood proudly for 250 years. The structure of our democratic republic has evolved over the years, but the core principle of self governance has never changed.

Over the years, we have argued the path forward, we have fought each other, and we have survived existential crises. We have never backed down from a challenge, no matter how insurmountable it may have seemed at the time. We are the nation that liberated the world from genocidal dictatorships in WWII. We are the nation that developed the airplane, harnessed the power of nuclear energy, and cured the world’s worst diseases. We are the nation that the world turns to for solutions to the biggest challenges, who they call in times of crisis, and who they model their own democracies and revolutions after.

This is why the United States of America continues to hold so much promise. It is a nation where even the poorest among us have access to more opportunities and more possibilities than entire generations and entire continents elsewhere. It is a nation where anyone has the chance of turning their dream into a reality with hard work, a little bit of luck, and the blessing of the Lord Almighty.

At the same time, we are faced with a growing reality that the American Dream we were promised is becoming harder to realize. We were told that as Americans, all we had to do was work hard, and we could achieve our own dreams, build great lives, and raise our families in homes that we own.   But the cards are now stacked against us in a lot of ways. It’s getting harder to put food on the table, put gas in the tank, and keep a roof over our heads. Meanwhile, we read stories every day of foreigners cutting the line, committing fraud, and taking millions of our dollars to enrich themselves at our expense. We see the government taking more of our hard earned money and demanding a bigger say in our daily lives. They are not responsible enough to balance a budget, but want to send our paychecks to fund their pet projects around the world. They but want to put a “kill-switch” in our cars to shut them down whenever they choose. And our representatives seem to vote in line with their donors more than their voter.

The same country that harnessed electricity, split the atom, and invented the internet is faced with our own crises now. Corruption in the halls of Congress, homelessness and drug addiction in our streets, and millions of American citizens struggling to get by. Truly, this is not the version of America that we were promised.

The path forward isn’t clear, but one thing is: the politicians who got us into this mess are not going to get us out of it. We’ve made a lot of progress in this administration, but there is so much more to do. So let us never settle, never give up, and never stop striving for the America that we were promised.

I choose to believe that America’s best days are not behind us. I chose to believe that the foundation laid by our forefathers and the ingenuity of generations of Americans will serve as the framework for us to build the more perfect Union that we have always aspired to. I believe that there is hope for our future, hope for this generation of patriots to rise and achieve the American dream.

I am proud to be an American. I am blessed to be an American. I am thankful to God that I am an American.

We must ensure that America continues to be that shining city on the hill and a beacon of freedom for the rest of the world. We are the example. We are the last best hope of earth. Not as simply an economic zone for the rest of the world to exploit, but as a model for people around the world to build their own democratic republics to protect their God-given rights.

Truly, the government of this country was intended to serve its own citizens, and make sure that our great land could remain full of opportunities for the American people. We should hold true to that promise, the one that millions of brave and honorable Americans donned the uniform and fought to defend. We owe them not only our freedom, but the responsibility for us to defend our American values from all who seek to undermine them.

This next 250 years, I pray that our nation returns to its roots as a Christian nation, honoring the Lord who grants upon us our lives, our purpose, and our rights. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America for centuries to come.