Camp HappyBadFun!

Happy 4th of July, Everyone!

We truly do live in a remarkable country! The blessings we enjoy in the United States are unsurpassed by any other people in any other land, past and present. When I consider all that I have, whether it has been realized or merely potential, I cannot feel anything but humility. The freedoms I enjoy are not freedoms I have earned. In the 1500's my forefathers left Spain and became explorers of this great land. In the 1800's people whose names I'll never know left their families and their homelands of Italy and Ireland for the Promised Land. To my knowledge, none of them became fabulously wealthy or even modestly successful. It is on their shoulders I stand and it is their sacrifice to which I am indebted.

Then there are the countless thousands whose blood paid the price for my freedom. I am overwhelmed when I consider their bravery, their courage and the moral conviction that guided their lives and assured them as they faced their own mortality that there are things worth fighting for and things worth dying for. Oh how I pray that my sons are as noble as those that have fought and those that died for this great country.

As we celebrate this wonderful day, let us each be mindful to diligently guard against the temptation to enjoy the fruits of citizenship without tending the tree of liberty. All that we have...all that we are...all that freedom affords us is insignificant if we do not take that which we are blessed with to bless others.

Thank you, Lord, for this most precious land I call home. And thank you to every member of the armed forces, past and present, who have sacrificed so much to ensure liberty's light shines brightly. And thank you to my dear, sweet brother--wherever you are.