In the United States, today is a national holiday, celebrating the promise of the New World by honoring the journey of Christopher Columbus to its shores. We sometimes hear from readers who argue that we should be ashamed of our stewardship of the promise of that new world. They point to our all-too-painful failures, arguing the dream itself is tainted by the imperfect nature of those who live in that dream.

In the United States, today is a national holiday, celebrating the promise of the New World by honoring the journey of Christopher Columbus to its shores. We sometimes hear from readers who argue that we should be ashamed of our stewardship of the promise of that new world. They point to our all-too-painful failures, arguing the dream itself is tainted by the imperfect nature of those who live in that dream.

It is not unlike the criticisms Christians hear about their faith...pointing to the Inquisition, or the Crusades, or our tendencies to drift towards legalism over grace. Those critics would have us abandon the dream of freedom, to retreat from the truth of the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ, hoping to bludgeon us into silence by reminding us of our own inadequacies. Today's essay argues the first case, and tomorrow's regular weekly devotion answers the second. Truth is eternal, and while the defenders of truth may sometimes stumble beneath the nobility of the cause they serve, an apology for serving it is never in order.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident..."

It started with the dreams of farmers and tailors, clergymen and blacksmiths. It started in a place where the shape of the future was still uncertain, but where the constraints of the past were no longer welcome. No person, the dream goes, starts the journey more valuable than another, or less worthy either. The historic search for a place where men and women could begin life with a blank slate, and write on it their value to society with their own labor, found a home on the chilly shores of the New World.

"...that all men are created equal..."

Critics of the people who birthed this grand experiment point to times and places where the ideal of the dream faltered, linking the failures of those writing on the slate to the dream of freedom and equality itself. Those critics most often are found sitting on the sidelines, ignoring the pleas of billions wanting the chance to write on that slate as well. Those same critics are also often the first in line pleading for us to stand with them when their own glimmer of the dream dissipates beneath a dark threat.

Any person, American or otherwise, who believes themselves to be born more valuable than the man or woman next to them has certainly betrayed that dream. Any person, American or otherwise, who believes themselves not worthy of the freedom it offers is a spirit crushed by betrayers of that dream. Certainly the slates of many, Americans and otherwise, have written themselves to a place beneath the dignity of the dream. Seduced by greed, by a desire to serve self above community, by a willingness to abandon decency, justice, morality, integrity and equity, they cast a pall over the experiment without qualms.

Still, there is a tenacity to this nation that reflects the millions of slates where sacrifice and toil stamp the dream a stirring, unyielding, immeasurable success.

In the end, the value of any American is measured not so much by their achievements as by their willingness to stand and pass the dream itself to another people, another generation. We have come to discover that greatness is not measured by the end results of our scribbling on life's slate, but rather on our preservation of the opportunity to write on that slate.

Even as we agonize over our all-too-human frailties in living out the dream...even as we wrestle with the arrogance that tempts us as we breathe the sweet aroma of possibility and achievement...even as we sometimes struggle to remember our successes only measure our labors and not our value as human beings...we defend the purity of the dream itself without apology.

"... that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

We may forever be destined to stumble in our march towards a place where the purity of the dream is matched by reality, but we will always muster the strength to get back up and continue the march. Others may pelt us from the sidelines, or seek to discourage us by pointing to our frailties, but with single-minded passion and the grace of God who planted that dream in a few hardy farmers with scarcely a wisp of hope before them, we will keep marching.