The United States of America was born of a minority of people overcoming seemingly impossible odds. Serious students of history tell us the founders who fought for their independence from tyrannical governance credited divine intervention throughout the Revolutionary War. Their enemy, the British Empire, boasted the greatest naval and military war machine on earth. The victory was so great a defeat it was, and is, celebrated to this day both here and abroad. Why? It was a victory that meant freedom for all, even the little guy. It was the ultimate leveling of the human playing field, and the reason people flock here to this day.
To honor this providence the founders made daily prayer a habit as they debated and drafted what would become the Constitution of the United States. The first of its kind, the Constitution enshrined the rights of the people as supremely important over the powers of the government. In fact, by its very nature, the Constitution is designed to create limits and boundaries, because the founders knew people are innately corrupt and power corrupts to the level of absolute corruption. Knowing this they cleverly crafted a system of checks and balances subordinate to the will and rights of the people. The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the historical victory of the Revolutionary War all resulting in the greatest system of government to honor the inherent freedom alive in the human spirit, are what we celebrate every July 4th. The freedom we have as a result of these things is why.
The United States of America, despite what its latest detractors would have you believe, was founded by underdogs, rejects, and dissidents who shared the common desire to be free. Ironically, and to the point of the critics, the world they inhabited included slaves who did not enjoy the same freedom despite sharing their desire. These protestors would have you cast your mind back in time and keep your focus on this anachronistic evil rather than the free people of the United States fighting to set all Americans free. You see, that’s the nature of the evil they constituted against and it took another generation of Americans to overcome it. Yet again they enshrined this also unlikely and costly victory in the Constitution, namely the 13th Amendment. A nation of slaves was now free and protected by the same Constitution intended to limit the evil among and around them.
Fast forward to World War II and a young but powerful American army is called on to check evil yet again. A world under siege from Russian communists, socialist Nazis, Italian fascists, and Japanese imperialists called to the freedom-loving soldier citizens of America to help deliver them from the tyrants abroad. Were it not for the history of America which had shown fortune favors the brave in the land of liberty, and that God comes to the aid of those who set captives free, the specter of global domination by evil people might be with us still. Thanks to thousands of heroic American soldiers it isn’t, and freedom still rings.
The streets of America were yet again visited by those among us who called out the liars and tyrants conspiring with dark hearts and invisible hands to keep them from the freedom for which their ancestors fought. The civil rights movement of the 1960s saw yet another cast of cast-offs emboldened by the higher principles of the American dream offered to all in the Constitution willing to fight, this time peacefully, for equal rights and freedom from tyranny. Though ostensibly a movement among the black citizenry, the support for their rights included white, brown, yellow, and red-skinned Americans who knew freedom kept from some meant America wasn’t truly free. People of conscience marched, rallied, and spoke truth to power until the Civil Rights Act became law. The story of the victorious American underdog saw yet another chapter written for the ages.
Some fifty years later in 2016, an unlikely candidate for the highest office in the land snatched victory from the jaws of the establishment elite who told us through their media apparatus their darling candidate had a ninety percent chance of winning to his measly ten percent. Laughed at by anyone who had a television show, this anti-establishment yet pro-American celebrity playboy spoke the language of those who still believed in America as it always had been; a great America that had made its name by fighting for freedom at home and abroad; a great America that rose to a level of prosperity and power never before seen in world history; a great America, before the enemies within conspiring with the enemies without systematically overtook our institutions and began their systematic assault on both our way of life and our families, including America’s unborn babies. His victory shocked the nation, me included. It served as a reminder our system of government remains the most fair in the world, and is built to resist evil while offering justice to those willing to exercise it faithfully.
This past weekend I found myself in the flyover states where they still know and believe in what America represents. Flags adorn yards, houses, cars, trucks, businesses, and apparel. July fourth is regarded with almost the same excitement as the greater holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. Firework stands pop up at the usual locations, and no one says a word about the caliber one can buy, because these people are free and freedom takes risks.
Saturday evening in Columbus, Indiana the local parks fill up in anticipation of this year’s show. A solid three hours before sundown the fields of newly mowed grass are covered with children and adults all playing and enjoying their shared freedom in what, here at least, is still the greatest country on earth. No one is bothered by race or ethnicity as all come pouring in to celebrate. Smiles, laughter, and joy fill the air alongside Frisbees, footballs, baseballs, softballs, and corn-hole sets. Blankets, chairs, and families gather in groups that converge on the scene in anticipation of the annual event that will light up the sky.
As if to remind us of His role in all of these events the sky darkens for an hour or so and provides contrast in the distance to peals of lightning drawing “oohs” and “aahs” from the children drawn to the light. Collectively we acknowledge the power of the One who can send it. Darkness creeps in and the park begins to quiet itself as the Star-Spangled Banner plays over the local radio stations. The government-funded firework show is symbolic to this country – of the people, by the people, and for the people. The same people would light up the sky yet again on July 4th proper as little Columbus, Indiana turns into a forty-square mile show dwarfing the display put on by its government, yet another subtle reminder of the power among the people.
America is not done being the great champion of the underdog. The overturning of Roe vs. Wade is yet another moment in our history where the unlikeliest of underdogs, babies unable to defend themselves against the most powerful political party on earth, were delivered a stunning victory that continues to reverberate across the land. The Fourth of July celebrates the birth of our great nation. We are a nation of misfits, underdogs, unlikely heroes, and revolutionaries born into evil but called to be free, and to fight for others’ freedom everywhere. This year was a reminder of the value of being born and the idea of freedom for all being born again.
