I’m not quite sure what would help soothe my problems of this past week, but when I attend the church’s park service, my soul is freed and everything that was challenging fades away. I pray that the hostile political atmosphere of our country does the same. For the Gospel today, John 6:12 (KJV), Christ told His Disciples that they should “gather up the fragments of food that remained from feeding a thousand people and let nothing be lost.” With the divisions in American society, we need to gather together in common goals for the good of all Americans as this presidential election comes closer. We need to make sure that no one’s rights get lost in the shuffle, Democrats, Republicans, or Independents.
As I continue to discover more people from the past that have done the right things, despite negativity from family, friends, and communities, I have found another man who wanted to bring only peace to the world after two great wars: Pope John XXIII. We must move beyond all politics to the needs of all people with peace and love. We can create without destroying everything, without tearing apart the Constitution, and without denying the peace and love we all need to survive. The most important legacy that we can leave our children is that we stood up for our American values and that we lived a good life together because of that courage. What do you do when others try to control your thoughts, words, and deeds? Do you give into what others want or do you stand by your values with God as your guide? When you struggle in life, when rain seems to fall in abundance into your life, your tears become your poetry for the world. When your smile rises from those tears because others have shared in those struggles, the heavens open up, and God smiles on our ability to get along, to work together, and to share the things we cannot do for ourselves.
What is also important is to meet each other in the present. There is beauty and sweetness in the now. Only God knows our futures, but rest assured, the paths He leads us all on as Americans are the truth, the light, and the way. Nothing can be more important today than loving one another and forgiving the wrongs we have done to each other. Christ, our Shepherd, will guide His flock, and He will seek and find even the smallest child in a briar patch and every American who opens his heart to Him. America exists because God made it, and He is not done with us yet.
Anna Hartt
