Of the coming\u00a0of the Lord.<\/i><\/p>\n
The opening of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. \u00a0Hopeful… yet very grim as well. \u00a0The song is much less rambling than I’m likely to be in this post. \u00a0That being said, our country has a long road ahead of it. \u00a0The future is not my provenance. \u00a0Only the present. \u00a0The future is in other hands than my own. \u00a0Yet parts of it are in my own hands. \u00a0That is what we often forget in times like this. \u00a0America, for all the rest of the world likes to claim we’re not so special, is different. \u00a0While Euro-think is rather fashionable at the moment with its emphasis on collectivism and its utter terror of nationalism, America is still different. \u00a0We are a nation of doers. \u00a0By and large we don’t sit around and wait for someone to come in and fix our problems for us. \u00a0We take a stab at fixing the plumbing ourselves and don’t wait for the plumber to turn off the water at the source. \u00a0It is not in us, by and large, to just stand by and let things go.<\/p>\n
Today is an election day. \u00a0I’ve heard many people talking about running for other countries should ours go sour… but remember America is different. \u00a0I’ve been to many other countries, and there are fundamental differences that are hard to see when you’re not looking for them often because the American way seems mutually contradictory. \u00a0We are an ungovernable rabble that believes in the rule of law. \u00a0How does that work and what does that mean?<\/p>\n
As a culture we still believe, though there are those (those Europhiles and many other so called elites) trying to kill this, that there is right and there is wrong. \u00a0That right and wrong don’t change just because society changes. \u00a0It’s how people can come to a full and complete stop at 3am at a stoplight in the middle of no where, and, at the same time, scoff at things like prohibition. \u00a0If we go out as a nation it will be in a way not seen before. \u00a0And America will survive. \u00a0I’m not sure how long it will take to rebuild her to what she should be, but we’ve been there before… and never gotten to ‘should.’ \u00a0 That’s why we keep striving. \u00a0One foot in front of another.<\/p>\n
We are not a nation that bends well to orders from on high. \u00a0We are not a nation that stands back and lets other do for us. \u00a0We may let others take care of their own problems, but that’s bitten us badly more than once. \u00a0I don’t see us falling back into complete isolationism. \u00a0We are a nation of oaths and Ideals not of blood and bone. \u00a0We are one of the few nations in the world where identity is not tied to blood descent, though our lovely ‘elites’ are trying to change that as well. \u00a0American is American. \u00a0You can look like anything but how do you act, and do you support the nation? \u00a0Our founding principles are radically different from the rest of the world: \u00a0We believe that all men are created equally and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.<\/p>\n
Sam Colt and John Moses Browning gave us the means to enforce that equality, even against the government. \u00a0That’s something else different about America. \u00a0 We stand up for ourselves, but we suck at jackboots. \u00a0No, seriously. \u00a0We gave Germany back to the Germans. \u00a0We gave Kuwait back to the Kuwaitis. \u00a0We gave South Korea back to itself, the list goes on. \u00a0Our elites have forgotten this. \u00a0The American people want to live and let live. \u00a0Our elites have been trying to divide us. \u00a0How long that damage will take to heal, only God himself knows. \u00a0 There is likely gunfire and smoke in our future, but we will fight first with words. \u00a0I pray daily that there is some other, better way through this darkness, but the future is not my provenance. \u00a0Part of me is grateful for that. \u00a0I have had some brief glimpses of the future in the past, but never has it been pleasant.<\/p>\n
I don’t normally go into some of the stranger experiences I have had in my life, but I have seen the other half of this war. \u00a0It is not a struggle just of flesh and blood, but, to wax biblical, of principalities and powers. \u00a0Note, especially for those of you not of a religious bent: \u00a0Principalities and Powers do not refer to nations, but other powers that cannot be placed in boxes and painted green nor can their composition be measured by a mass spectrometer. \u00a0This is a war of the spirit. \u00a0I will save the spiritual details for some other post, suffice to say, I have seen these battle lines. \u00a0The “Watchfires of a hundred circling camps” are not just physical fires. \u00a0We are in for a rocky ride. \u00a0The immediate end I cannot say. \u00a0In the long term I have hope. \u00a0And I have sympathy for those who cannot have such hope<\/p>\n
The part that really got me thinking today was this verse:<\/p>\n
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea<\/i><\/p>\n
With a glory in his bosom\u00a0that transfigures you and me,<\/i><\/p>\n
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.<\/i><\/p>\n
His truth is marching on.<\/i><\/p>\n
Let us die to make men free has an alternative wording that goes back quite a ways: \u00a0Let us LIVE to make men free. \u00a0Usually I prefer the origional, but looking at this election, I have been thinking that perhaps the living, this time, will be making the greater sacrifices. \u00a0A life can only be laid down once, and unless things turn out very differently than they seem to be heading, I think it likely some will be asked to die to make men free… but others will be asked to live. \u00a0 To NOT die with them, not because we are unwilling, but because someone must rebuild. \u00a0Our elites won’t. \u00a0They have shown only the capacity to destroy.<\/p>\n
And that is the transfiguring: \u00a0We build. \u00a0We strive towards a perfection we know we cannot achieve and unlike a certain religion that people love comparing to Christianity, we don’t expect paradise here on earth. \u00a0We don’t behead the infidel. \u00a0We fight when we must, because evil cannot go unchecked, but we build. \u00a0Because we are called to build. \u00a0And we are called to build things of the spirit. \u00a0These things lead to how we act in the world, and how the world winds up. \u00a0It is to us, those who survive the coming storm, to rebuild. \u00a0We have a duty, to stand against evil, but also to nurture the good and not become the evil ourselves nor flee and hope someone else will come to save us on this world. \u00a0 I’m not too big on the notion of one person being the hope or doom of a nation. \u00a0America is an Ideal. \u00a0It is the people who take up her banner. \u00a0That is much harder to kill than any one person or any one organization. \u00a0We have walked this darkness before and we are still here. \u00a0We can walk this darkness again. \u00a0Light a candle. \u00a0Be the hope. \u00a0One foot in front of the other. \u00a0Encourage each other. \u00a0Take encouragement. \u00a0Raise your candle against the night. \u00a0The Dawn will come. \u00a0Teach your children well, for as Dawn follows night, there will be other dark times, and they will need to be ready even as we do.<\/p>\n
This is rough, but I think it’s appropriate:<\/p>\n
Look to the sky
\nLook to the stars
\nThey can\u2019t take us over
\nThey can\u2019t take what\u2019s ours.<\/p>\n
The work of our hands,
\nWe can always redo.
\nThe things in our minds
\nWe pass down to you.<\/p>\n
The will to the striving
\nThey never will break.
\nThe hope in our labors
\nThey never can take.<\/p>\n
The fire that burns
\nIn every free soul
\nIs something they never
\nCan see nor control.<\/p>\n
They think in our spirits
\nWe are like them,
\nYet we know the truth:
\nWe are still men.<\/p>\n
No machine to dance
\nTo a street grinder\u2019s tune.
\nNo dog to lie lazy,
\nThen howl at the moon.<\/p>\n
We look to the sky
\nAnd reach to the stars,
\nAnd they can\u2019t understand
\nWhat makes the sky ours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"