Ron Mac Prays (sorta)

Ron is a good theologian but has a sore spot where one shouldn't concerning all things USA. Let me put it another way, Ron doesn't love America like I do. That's OK. He's not from here. He's from New Zealand. I understand actually. I had to go thru "reorientation" every time I returned to the USA from Japan, or South America or Europe after an extended stay there. Particularly if it was over a year. Americans seemed stupid, fat and clumsy. Too much stuff at Wal Mart. Too Many choices for cereal. And those big cars they all drove. Not like those sensible Germans. It would take me a little while to get over it all. Then I came to grasp the American spirit.

When I lived in Europe I spent a lot of time with German friends over food and drink and long deep conversation stumbling into many who condescended towards the USA. Never mind that if the going gets tough it's our phone number they dial up first. Oh, they believe they would dial up the UN. Right. Dial that number and you end up in Voice Mail Hell.

If you want us to send ineffective blue helmeted idiots press 2.

But, that's OK. We need to be put in our place. We need a "Little" humility. Not too much however. I want the American spirit to spread across the world. I want the "we can make this thing work" spirit to be in the heart of every human on the face of the earth.

I love this country. I believe in manifest destiny. I believe that we are in this world for such a time as this. The world would be far worse off today if the USA didn't exist. I believe that even when it's been clumsy it's been right. Going to Iraq for instance. And Afghanistan. Good is coming out of it in spades.

Hope is being birthed in people who had none. American Hope. And meanwhile the witness of the the Gospel is being clumsily propagated. So, my friend Ron, I was amused by your prayer and untroubled by your condescension.

As I was untroubled by my German Friends who asked me if I was really happy that Bill Clinton had just been elected president of the USA when we lived there. I wasn't. They were amazed.

Without the Yanks "tramping round the world, beating up bad guys" British folks would be conducting business in German today, as they would in Paris. The Australians and Kiwi's would be conducting business in Japanese. Condescension forgets Darwin and 1942-43.

In 50 years there will be ivory towered people in Iraq and Afghanistan (and if I had my way Iran) who will be condescending in safety and freedom about that nasty old USA and their doughnut eating gluttons with a sniff and a sneer. We will have fulfilled our purpose on this planet. Giving them the ability to live and sniff in the ivory tower they built on our blood.

Your prayer is humorous Ron, but without understanding that the USA has a place in the Plan of God. I want to be part of it all. He doesn't have to Bless the USA - He just does.

From a comment by Ron:

An American Prayer

Dear God
You know that oil you put in the crust of your earth. You thought it was enough to last for thirty generations. Well, we have used most of it up.

We have not wasted it. We have not built a tower of Babel. No, we have done exactly as you said in Gen 11:8,9 and spread suburbia out across the plains.

And we have used quite a bit oil for tramping round the world, beating up bad guys, and making the world safe for American business. Whoops, I meant your people.

Anyway, the easy oil is all gone. You didn’t create enough of it. So you had better give us some new cheap energy. We do not care what it is, as long as you do it fast.

So jump to it, God. This is important. We have got American living to do. Some families have had to stop eating donuts to pay for gas.

Amen

And God Bless America. You have to you know.