While so many in this country are finding new ways to fight and rehearse divisions, in our Converging Solutions world, I challenge readers to find the similarities in the freedoms we celebrate.
Whether your family spends more time celebrating Juneteenth (June 19th), or US Independence Day (July 4th), or Latin American Independence Days (throughout September), we all have similar themes to celebrate. This holiday season, let’s focus on a few of the many similarities that we are blessed to share:
- Freedom from past abuse and oppression
- Freedom to worship and assemble
- Freedom to forgive and to heal
- Freedom to let go of the past and move forward
- Freedom to work together to create something greater than ourselves
Each of these bullets by themselves could be an entire blog. As you think of your family stories from generations past, which of these bullets carry the most impact in your freedom story?
Many bullets are made to destroy people and lives with deadly force. The bullets above, are even more powerful if we realize the similarities that we all have in common in this amazing melting pot we call the United States of America.
My prayer is that, as the many peoples we represent, we will remember the freedoms our ancestors fought and died for, we will celebrate what we’ve been delivered from, take time to reflect and worship, by assembling with others, gracefully forgive, and heal as we learn from and let go of the past so that together, we can build a better future for generations to come, without recreating the histories our ancestors overcame.
The Converging way is to simultaneously honor and worship, forgive and heal, let go and move forward, toward a better future because of our shared past.
Happy Independence Day!