Red, White, and Blue?
July 7th, 2008As our celebration of Independence Day rolled around this week, I found myself in deep thought. As I sat on the beach, enjoying our family vacation, three main thoughts struck me.
I know what you are thinking: Oh great! Here comes another one of those pieces packed with a plethora of patriotic platitudes and political propaganda!
Well, no, not quite. And it wasn’t just an excuse for a little alliteration.
The three thoughts actually did revolve around red, white and blue, but these thoughts may be a bit different than you might expect. And being the backward thinker that I am, I thought about them backwards. Blue, White and Red. Kind of a dyslexic approach I know, but it seemed to work for me (or at least for this column).
My first thought was of how incredibly fast the last year has flown by. Can it really be 365 days ago I sat here on this same beach watching my brother-in-law turn his thumb to cinder while doing his best Clark Griswold imitation in giving us a great fireworks show? In anticipation of this year, I’m thinking of bringing him a pair of gloves with steel reinforced tips. Either that or a really long lighting device.
So that is the blue of this day, as in feeling a bit blue. The sudden realization, once again, of just how fast time goes is startling and a bit of a downer. Yet, it is a realization that should cause us all to pause (pause…ok, good) and evaluate how we are making use of our time. In the grand scheme of things, our days are few. Yet we are presented the opportunity to use every one of them in meaningful ways.
OK, so Action #1: Don’t be Blue. Make the best possible use of each day, drinking in all that the day has to offer, investing into people and relationships, and seeing to it that every ounce of what I have to offer is emptied out on the things that matter most – like my wife, and kids, and seeing the culture changed, and working toward the lives of others being bettered, and…(fill in your own thoughts here).
So, now you are getting engaged in this piece, and you are thinking what about the white, right? When I thought of white, I thought about purity. The purity of thought, purity of heart is such a great need in our culture today. So much revolves around the profane – both in speech and in innuendo.
Webster’s defines profane as:
1: to treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence, or contempt : desecrate; 2 : to debase by a wrong, unworthy, or vulgar use
Unfortunately, in our current culture too few things remain sacred. So much that was once private is now unabashedly in-your-face, and has obliterated a sense of virtue. We need a return to personal and corporate purity. We need to remember that “we are not our own”. Our actions and words do affect others – sometimes greatly. In a return to purity of heart, we would all look to the interests and concerns of others, and how what I do will affect them.
Action #2: “Paint” my heart White again. Remember that I am not my own. I am connected to a family, community, society of others and what I do and say has an effect on all of them as well. If I uphold virtue, then I will help my family, community and society become a bit more virtuous. And if we all did this? (Rhetorical)
So what about the red? (Get ready for the partially patriotic portion of this piece, which is part and parcel of the primary point. Ugh! It’s that dreaded alliteration thing again!)
When I thought of red, I thought of sacrifice. Yes, I did think of the blood that has been spilled by red-blooded young men and women who have sacrificed to protect our freedoms. I also thought of the not-so-young men and women, also red-blooded, who spilled that blood to initially gain us our freedom, when all they had to hold onto was a vision. But I also thought beyond that.
Vision requires sacrifice. It requires a willingness to give up what might stand in the way of that vision being fulfilled. What are you willing to sacrifice so that the vision you have for your life, your family, your marriage, your job, your impact on this world, can be fulfilled? Are you willing to lay some things down in order that the greater things can be achieved? Often it is the thing that seems to be good which keeps us from what is actually best. Forfeiting the “good” so that we can attain the “best” requires sacrifice.
Personal freedom also requires sacrifice. In order for me to truly be free, I will have to sacrifice the things that would otherwise bind me – whether physical or emotional. I will also have to sacrifice of my self for others. True personal freedom comes when I am willing to lay down my wants and desires so that I can lift up others. When I desire to see others become all they can be more than I desire to acquire more “stuff”, I will have to sacrifice something. Yet, the rewards are always greater.
So, Action #3: Go Red. Determine to lay my self interests down so that others may be lifted up. Contrary to our current me-first culture, I have learned this way to be the way of real freedom. It was once said, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend.” I have found that to be true.
Action #4: Enjoy the 4th of July from my spot on the beach again…while helping my brother-in-law keep what is left of his thumb this year.
Action #5: Vow to stop using the string of P alliterations…at least for the rest of this commentary.