Little girl's prayer: "Lord I can't come up with the words right now. Could you just listen to my heart?"

I'm very glad to greet you here on this early morning and end-of-the-work-week, Friday, August 2, 2013. The wife is due back today from her brief visit over in Louisiana, and that's always something to look forward to. She went forth and now she will be coming back. Forth, and then back. Maybe her family over there will see it as her going forth from their territory and they will be looking forward to her coming back. Or maybe we are all thinking of that old country song, "I was looking back to see If you were looking back to see If I was looking back to see If you were looking back at me." Life can get confusing at times. I read an unattributed quote recently that had this sentiment: "Life... four little letters, yet so complicated. Love... four little letters, yet so confusing." Life can be daunting but it is the only one we have to work with at the present time, therefore, I suppose we should commit ourselves to making the best of it. Truth is, God and God alone is our only hope of making sense out of the life that He has given to us. He was good to give us a manual to help us along our way, His Holy Word. Amen.

I was reading an editorial from one of those special reprints, the Chicago Herald Examiner newspaper dated July 24, 1934, and a particular article impressed me. The writer was talking about a number of different situations where folks had refused to pay an assessment that they believed to be unlawfully levied. They had taken their case to the courts and the editorial writer said this: "The contentions of these aggrieved and protesting Americans may be upheld, or they may not. But no one can say that they are doing wrong in resorting to the courts for protection against what they conceive to be an invasion of their rights. It is a salutary, wholesome and altogether proper thing for them to do, and it is gratifying, in the highest degree, to find that we have men in detached and distant communities acting independently, but simultaneously, for the vindication of rights which they believe to be theirs under the Constitution of the United Sates. It is essentially AN AMERICAN STAND which they are taking. They are conducting themselves in the most approved American fashion. Here is convincing and refreshing evidence of the survival among us of a spirit which must never be allowed to die." Sounds almost like a speech from a Tea Party rally to me.

Maybe it is a good time to remind us all of the saying made popular by the Russian immigrant comedian, Yakov Smirnoff, "America, What a country!" He also had this quote: "My father described this tall lady who stands in the middle of New York harbor, holding high a torch to welcome people seeking freedom in America. I instantly fell in love." I know I like to pick and poke and there's much about our political machinations that drive us all up the wall. However, we can be thankful to God that we still live in the land of the free and the home of the brave. On that note I will close out another week of throwing stuff up against the electronic wall. Hopefully some of it stuck especially that which points people to the only hope we have, for ourselves, and for our country. That would be the Lord God of heaven as provided to us through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Have a wonderful Saturday and Lord's Day Sunday. Look for me to show up as a coming attraction at an email inbox near you, maybe as early as next Monday. May God bless each one. Amen.        .....More later.