For the past few days we have all been watching Florida as the massive hurricane inched forward. Governor Desantis was proactive in declaring a state of emergency so that they could defend themselves against the storm and then rebuild as quickly as possible, but the storm is still causing damage, and the extent of the damage is hard to believe.
My heart hurts to see the shoreline destroyed, miles and miles of carnage. The beaches are destroyed. Sharks have been pulled in from the ocean are swimming in the water near the submerged homes. Yachts float sideways down the street between the houses. These are sights I have never seen before in all of my 50-plus years.
How can anyone find peace among such carnage? That question has been in my mind for the last few days, and I have been trying to find a way to write about it. Carried within that question is an assumption, of course, that peace is dependent upon our surroundings, and that is just not true.
Peace comes from within, from knowing that whatever is going on outside, you are perfectly safe. Isaiah 26:3 says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.” Much of what troubles us is fear of the unknown. We’ve had plenty of uncertainty lately, haven’t we? Oh yes, we’ve had it and it continues all over the world.
We have lost trust in the media because our journalists have been bullied, paid off and indoctrinated. Our children have been subjected to propaganda and social engineering experiments of which we have been unaware. Our medical system has been overtaken by those who worship profit, and many of our churches have stopped leading the way to the Truth, and have instead catered to the culture to try to win attendees. One by one, our great men and women of the past have been slandered and smeared by revisionists, until we just don’t know what to believe.
Sometimes I ask myself why we, as Americans, are so eager to listen to stories that smear the greatness of our past. And at other times I wonder, “Has it all just been a lie, then?” Maybe some of it has been a lie, but since we spent considerable time early on in our homeschooling journey “debunking” what the textbooks said about American history, I know a lot of the good stories about America are true. In fact, some of the best stories are not widely known!
In case you care to look at some of those original records yourself, many have been digitized through the Library of Congress and are available to read online.
Those who are dead cannot defend themselves against slander, and so it is up to the living to find the truth and to tell it, loudly. If my reputation was being insulted after I was gone, I sure wish someone would defend me. (Of course, I am like Emily Dickinson’s “Nobody,” so it would never be an issue. )
I’m Nobody, who are you?
–Emily Dickenson
Are you Nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us–don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog,
To tell your name the livelong day,
To an admiring bog!
But what if, for example, I had helped to defeat slavery and then someone “cancelled” me, after my death, for being somehow connected to slavery? Dead or not, that is a tremendous insult, and should not go unanswered.
But now we have to wake up, and realize that much of what is happening is designed to create anxiety in our hearts, to make us question ourselves, and to keep us in an easily-managed state of mind. Fear is a form of intense emotional energy, and once fear envelopes you, you are easy to control. Fear Not!
The Fullers Four 