O Thus Be It Ever…

We have come to another day of national remembrance⎯a day to remind us what this nation meant to those who offered their lives to bring it into being and to remind us what it now means to us, and to the rest of the world. It is a time when we find that freedom is still forcibly challenged in the earth. It is a time when every standard of value is subject to re-examination. But it is not a time for despondency or for despair, but for determination, and for something else besides: It is a time for prayer and for repentance. It is a time when we must face the fact that freedom isn’t always easy. Freedom means a choice. Freedom means making decisions. It means self-reliance, integrity, and individual effort. It means accepting responsibility; and it often means sacrifice. Our fathers knew all this when with God’s help they fashioned for us the foundations of this great and good land. Mercifully the Lord answered the prayers of their extremity and helped them to achieve the moral and material strength to do what has been done in the past. And only by the help of the God of our fathers can we hope to solve the problems and avoid the pitfalls of the present. We shall earnestly need the prayerful humility that is deserving of divine direction, not rashly rushing in, not shrinking from any clear-cut duty, not compromising any principle, being firm for freedom, with prayers for peace, with repentance consistent with our prayers, and with performance consistent with our repentance. There is no strength or wisdom that cannot be ours, God granting it. But there are no claims we have on Him except as we pursue His ways. Without divine direction, men, after all, are only men. As a nation may we pray earnestly for divine direction, and may we be deserving of the direction and sustaining power which only God can give.