H,
I know we are always going on about nation building but I hope it never descends
into rabid nationalism. To be clear we believe in the inherent value of the human
being and in the right to exist in the freedom we call democracy or human
rights or citizenship. We are more for open borders than closed one, for peace
in place of war and for cooperation instead of competition. These are idealistic
tones and we are in that boat, proudly.
The other layer to this is also that we believe in the higher love. We are
in the faith that speaks of a benevolent creator of all reality who is the
framer of our earthly context for living and being. We do not think that
nations are a mistake in the general sense but a flawed precept in the fallen
sense. They hold no value but for the human lives within them and the great nature
around them.
On days like these, national days, I am drawn to the idea of what it
means to be a citizen and to act like one even in the face of alternative acts
by people who should know better. Someone asked if it makes sense to follow the
law when people with power do not. We do not follow the law because of the human
call but because of the divine mandate to do so. All laws are meant to align
with natural justice and good conscience, so an unjust law can be ignored with
eternity in view. How do we know the difference? We have out hearts fixed on eternity,
so we know by feel and touch and the spooky parts of the reformed soul.
  There is no hard and fast rule in God but the
idea of loving your country must be subsumed in loving the people within it, caring
for the things around and in front us and also living for eternal values and not
trendy ones. Every value that is not eternal is trendy.
We are not here to dominate or push a Christian agenda. The light, even
in candle form, has no agenda. It simply is.