forgotten

The pleasant scene of Captain Von Trapp's portico overlooking the placid flowage of the blue Danube came even more alive and beckoning with the first pluck of guitar string.  The Captain, so recently reunited with his love of music, began to simultaneously remember and remind his children of his vivid love for his country.  The small flower he crooned of was a dainty yet robust symbol of his land and his people, a picture, a feeling, a deep abiding intangible reality that was tattooed on my heart as a teen traipsing the byways of Salzburg, Austria.  The Sound of Music soundtrack in its entirety is on my device and visited frequently, keeping fresh the memory of a time when evil ravaged a continent.

Americans have not endured a full-fledged invasion and a pressing into servitude since its founding.  European countries that fell under the demonically influenced Nazis bear very conspicuous reminders all over its geography, and are currently experiencing another invasion that is diabolically changing the fabric of their nationalities and cultures.  It was only 78 years ago that a duped German government gave away it's integrity to an obscure lunatic self-described as possessed by an ancient teutonic spirit. How can Europe be as scarred as it is from WW2, and not see clearly why it happened, so as to not allow it to happen again?  Yet it is happening again.  How can the United States, which, in an 8th of the time dwarfed the Nazi Vermacht, arming not only itself but its allies, struggled against evil on two sides of the world losing thousands upon thousands of her best and brightest...  How can we suffer from the same blank stupidity?  Yet, eight years of an unvetted, unqualified, invalid leader has done little to sober at least half of us-true American citizens.

During the Civil War, there was much of what we are in the middle of now.  So many voices screaming, demanding, cursing the President, cursing the other "side," vitriol, media outlets lying in attempt to validate fake news, and even murder.  What most people have forgotten about that time is there was not merely the Northern and Southern points of view.  There were northerners who wanted to keep slavery in tact, but wanted to keep the Union.  There were southerners who hated and battled slavery.  The great Confederate General Robert E. Lee was opposed to war as a solution to this conflict, but fought merely out of loyalty to his state, Virginia.  There were those who thought slaves should be freed but should be returned to their mother country, and the same carried an idea of white superiority.  There was a war waging in New York City between white supremacists who called themselves the rightful citizens and immigrants (Gangs of New York).  And swirling at the eye of this despondent vortex was the struggle for states' rights against central Federal power. 

They called him the rail splitter.  Meek as a mouse and strong as an iron rail, the backwoods self educated Abraham Lincoln was Divinely thrust into the center of all things conflicted.  He was not polished as his compadres of the newly formed Republican Party wished, far from "establishment."  His appearance was strange, drab.  His speech was heavily salted with vernacular of the frontier.  He told stories in answers to questions.  Yet he held to the one thing that could heal it all, even through the darkest times our country has even seen, and forced all back together.  That one thing still is ...  righteousness.  He held to what he knew was right, unswerving, even knowing he would die before fulfilling his second term. Certainly he was the one God raised up to bring the U.S. closer to His purposes. 

The good people of Deutschland lost their hold on what they knew to be right.  They changed the doctrine of their churches.  They allowed their guns to be taken from them.  They relinquished their right to speak freely.  They permitted subtle racism, then were forced to act and live in direct contradiction of their consciences.  Hauntingly familiar, eh?  History has forgotten that Germany was a good country before the lunatic, that good Germans were astonished at the speed and cunning that cast their country as the super villain of WW2. 

Like the good Captain Von Trapp, many have sat on their porticos watching the sun set on their beloved homelands, and tearfully sang its loss.  As the tears welled up in his eyes and his voice broke, perhaps he was remembering when he thought it could never happen to his country.  Perhaps he was thinking of a pride that "goeth before destruction," and repenting in his breaking heart.  We must always keep fresh the memory of when evil had its way, so that way of peace, unity, and righteousness will not be forgotten.

The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit.  God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart. Psalm 51.17 HCSB