"The Hope of America"

    There's a lot of talk today in our America about this word, "hope". Some believe that our hope is in one political party or in one person or in our nation’s leaders. We all have our own opinion of just how our America can survive and remain the most powerful and successful nation in the world - but where should our hope be? Consider these words of Abraham Lincoln. He was recently named the most successful president in our U.S. history.

   It was over almost 150 years ago when our nation divided and our terrible Civil War took so many brave American lives. During that terrible time, President Lincoln had one hope, one desire - to save America. But his hope was not based on shallow dreams or wishful thinking.  His hope was based on concepts and ideals and principles and a faith in Someone he knew to be bigger than him; principles and ideals which would, with God's help, save our America.

    And if Mr. Lincoln could be here in America today what would he tell us, how would he direct us as we search and strive to help our America find its way back home?

    He would say, first of all, that it is up to each of us to do the work.  Sadly, here in America today we have become a nation of mostly followers.  Sadly, so many of our citizens have given in, we've determined that our answer, our solution, is in someone else's hand.  Once, Mr. Lincoln was asked about his grandfather and just what kind of man he was.  He told what he knew of his grandfather but then he said this:

“Sir, I do not know so much about what my grandfather was;

what I'm more concerned with is

what his grandson will be.”  

    If Mr. Lincoln was here in America today he would say, don't look to your left or your right, the answer is not there – the answer is in you.  It is up to you to stand up for what is good and right and lasting.  It is up to you to carry the torch to show the way.  If America is going to get back home, it's up to you.

    “But,” you say, “I'm only 1 person in one small town, what can I do?”  It was patriot Thomas Paine who said:

“The biggest mistake you can make is to think that because

you can only do a little, you do nothing.” 

This is our first step home.

    If Abraham Lincoln were here in America today telling us what we must do to get America back home, he would talk about the road, the route we're taking.  Which road is the right road?  The easiest, the hardest?  And what difference does it make which road we take to get there?

    In my office when things get hard and aren't working right, when discouragement begins to come upon us, my response is, “If it was easy, everybody would do it.”  In other words, don't imagine that special things worth having are easily obtained, because they are not. The things that are truly worth having require sacrifice and hard work.

    Once, after hearing a sermon, Abraham Lincoln was asked to comment on the sermon's content.  He remarked that the pastor's delivery was good, the content was well-researched, but that the sermon lacked one very important part – it didn't call the people to do something great.  And today, the road we are being asked to go down is not one of greatness, it is one of mediocrity, we're not being asked to be set apart, to be better. 

    The truth is this - we are to set a mark, a line far above what we could even imagine, and to strive and fight and scrape, and pray that with God's help we can rise to a higher level. 

    I don't know about you, but I don't want to be France or England, or Japan, or Canada, I want to be America – the single greatest nation in the world.  And the road to the top is hard. It will always be hard.

    And, by the way, we are Americans, not American'ts.  I'm so tired of people telling me, telling us, we can't do something.  Don't tell me that.  Tell me that with God's Help and Strength, and for the greater good, that nothing is impossible. 

Say it, “I'm an American, not an American't.”

     If Abraham Lincoln were here in America today, guiding us back home to the hope of America, he would tell us, thirdly, that there is a rule of law in this nation and that this rule of law and respect for the law must be upheld.  In 1838, as a young man of only 29, in one speech he gave, Abraham Lincoln said this:

“Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity,swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particularthe laws of this country, and never to tolerate their violation by others.Let every person remember that to violate the law is to trample on the bloodof his father, and to tear the character of his own.”
     And that's exactly what is happening today in America. Some are being allowed to break the law and nothing happens. But the truth is this – the leaders of our nation are not privileged characters, somehow above the law because of their power or position.  If they dodge their taxes, or abscond with funds, or lie under oath, they should receive the same justice as us all.  That’s why Lady Justice is blindfolded and cannot see who stands before her. Justice is to be no respecter of persons. But, not today.  Today the blindfold is off and so many, because of their position, get a free pass, and it’s tearing our nation apart.

     If Mr. Lincoln were here in America today to show us the way back home to the America we all love and remember, he would say stop looking for the bad in people.  It was Abraham Lincoln who said:

“If you look for the bad in people,

you  will surely find it.”

     Why should we stop looking for only the bad? Tell me this, give me one famous critic in history.  You can’t.  Why?  Because critics get us nowhere. 

     So many Americans today have all the talking points down, all the ways to tear the other side down.  They all sound good and cool and piercing, but before you tear something down, before you clean it out, you’d better know what’s going to be in its place; and to tear someone down is non-productive.  Abe Lincoln would say quit wasting your time ripping into people.  Instead, think of solutions, and resolutions, work and strive to be a redeemer, not a destroyer.  Lift people up, don’t tear them down.Now does that mean we stick our heads in the sand, or become a doormat, or just give up?  Of course not, but a crushed spirit is perhaps the least productive, the least creative spirit there is.  Don’t crush people, be a positive thinker, look for solutions, lift people up – and you know what? When you do, they will listen to your ideas.  They will listen. 

     And finally, if Abraham Lincoln was here today he would tell us that we need to turn back to God.  How do I know?  Because he said it on March 30, 1863 when he called for a National Day of Fasting in America.  On that day he said:

“We have been the recipient of the choicest bounty of Heaven, we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity.  We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power, as no other nation has ever grown.  But, we have forgotten God, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtues of our own.  We have become too self-sufficient to feel His necessity, too proud to pray to the very God who made us.”

     He nailed it – he knew us, all those years ago, he knew us right now.  And we are about to lose it all. 

     It was Ronald Reagan who said:

“If America ever becomes anything other than one nation under God,

 then we will be a nation gone under.”

How true.

     When the Civil War started, one reporter asked President Lincoln, “Mister Lincoln, is God on your side in the war?”  President Lincoln replied,

“Sir, it is not important that God be on my side, what I must do, what we must do, is to find where God is standing and be on His side.” 

     Here’s the question - where are we standing today, where are you standing today? 

     I don’t know about you, but what I want to do, what I must do, is to find where God is standing and be right there with him.

May God Bless America